Senate approves FAA rider to return unspent earmarks

Money from transportation earmarks that have been on the books for more than 10 years and have disbursed less than 10 percent of the allocation would be returned to the Treasury under an amendment to FAA reauthorization legislation approved Thursday by the Senate, 87-11.

The proposal would require the Office of Management and Budget to determine how many similar earmarks exist across all federal agencies.

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said his amendment "would save $626 million in the first year and more down the road as many unused earmarks hit the 10-year milestone. These unused and often unwanted earmarks do nothing to create jobs or fix roads."

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee ranking member James Inhofe, R-Okla., opposed the amendment, saying it takes about 13 years to build a highway due to environmental and other regulations. "The Feingold amendment does not reduce the deficit one penny," Inhofe said.

The Senate rejected three other amendments, including one that would have imposed a virtual ban on earmarks for fiscal 2010 and fiscal 2011 by requiring a two-thirds vote on a point of order for any bill that included earmarks in those years.

That amendment was sponsored by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who argued, "We cannot continue to come here every day and talk about our unsustainable debt and then say, 'I need $1 million for my museum or my local sewer plant,' when in fact this is borrowed money."

DeMint contended that agreeing to a moratorium could pay political dividends for Republicans in the November elections as the public grows increasingly disaffected with government. He pointed to the Tea Party movement, a group of mostly conservatives opposed to increased government spending and debt. "We have a culture of spending here and Republicans have to step up and stop it," DeMint said.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, opposed DeMint's amendment, arguing that it would cede spending decisions to the White House and federal agencies.

The amendment "won't save a penny from the deficit," Inouye said. But "it will allow unelected bureaucrats, who have no accountability to voters, to determine how federal tax dollars are expended instead of the Congress."

Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Thad Cochran, R-Miss., also opposed the amendment citing the constitutional right of senators to earmark.

The earmark debate follows on the heels of an agreement by House Republicans to impose a one-year moratorium on all earmarks. Senate Republicans are scheduled Wednesday evening to consider whether to impose the ban in that chamber, although some key senators are opposed.

"I think we are seeing strong leadership out of the House" on earmarks, DeMint said, adding that he hopes Senate Republicans follow suit.

An amendment that would have expedited funding to Gulf Coast and other states under the Coastal Impact Assistance Program was also rejected, 57-41. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said his amendment was needed because only 15 percent of the funds promised to date have been distributed.

The Senate also rejected an amendment from Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., that would have reauthorized the District of Columbia school voucher program. The vote was 55-42.

The House Wednesday will vote on a three-month extension of federal aviation law, signaling potentially divisive and lengthy deliberations with the Senate. "I think it's indicative that we want to give ourselves some breathing space to reconcile the two bills," said Jim Berard, a spokesman for House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn.

The House and Senate FAA plans have significant differences, including language Oberstar has championed making it easier for FedEx workers to unionize. The Senate bill does not contain that language.

Senate leaders agreed to amend an unrelated House tax bill with the Senate FAA bill as a way of distancing themselves from the House FAA strategy -- and particularly the FedEx provision -- as a way to appease both Republican senators from Tennessee. They had initially held up the Senate bill to make sure the language affecting Memphis-based FedEx was not included in a final bill sent to the president.

The House Wednesday will also vote to fix how highway spending is doled out in a jobs bill the Senate is giving final approval to Wednesday. Oberstar and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. -- with the blessing of House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. -- agreed that Oberstar and other labor-friendly Democrats would not stand in the way of completing a now-$17.5 billion jobs bill if lawmakers subsequently changed how the bill awards $930 million for projects deemed to be of national or regional significance.

Reid agreed to follow the idea endorsed by House Transportation and Infrastructure leaders to have that funding -- a small portion of the overall $40 billion in annual highway aid for states -- given out based on the formula used for fiscal 2009 federal highway aid.

The Senate bill had used a formula based on earmarks in 2005 surface transportation legislation that gave four states more than half of that funding, while 22 others received nothing. The Transportation Department would be instructed not to spend any of that contested money until the fix is made.

Darren Goode contributed to this report.