Byrd Agrees to Give Up West Virginia Pork Projects
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James Joyner | Wednesday, December 13, 2006 |
The King of Pork is going on a diet.
Sen. Robert Byrd has built a reputation in Congress and in West Virginia using special interest funding to bring federal jobs and money home, but the king of pork said he’s willing to give up his projects for 2007 to find a way out of the ” fiscal chaos” left by the outgoing Republican-led Congress.
Byrd, incoming chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and his House counterpart Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin outlined their plan late Monday to pass a yearlong stopgap spending bill to keep government programs and agencies functioning until Sept. 30, 2007. To expedite the process, Byrd and Obey said they would eliminate earmarks — funding inserted into bills by lawmakers for projects in their district or states — from the unfinished budget.
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In a joint statement, Byrd and Obey said, “There are no good options available to us to complete the unfinished work of the Republican Congress. There will be no congressional earmarks in the joint funding resolution that we will pass. We will place a moratorium on all earmarks until a reformed process is put in place.”
We’ll see if Byrd and company figure out a way to get their pork in through the back door. But this is a welcome start, at least, down the path of cleaning up the process.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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Robert Byrd says: "I got mine, now y'all can't get yours."
Robert Byrd's megalomaniacal use of the public treasury to build monuments with his name on them ranks as one of the all time worst in history. The pyramids at Giza could be rebuilt for less money. And now this doddering old man is third in line to be President. As someone else famous once said, don't they know there's a war on?
He didn’t stop but rather just ran out of level ground on which to build.
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