Word: demint
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...projects often attached in secret to funding bills - until structural integrity of all U.S. bridges can be verified. There were $2 billion in earmarks in the bill, which, if passed, will fund the Transportation Department next year; the amendment failed 82-14. That same day Senator Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican, added his own amendment to suspend a rule that requires the government to use unionized workers to make emergency repairs to bridges, which DeMint says raises the cost by as much as 35%. That amendment also failed...
...fact that DeMint and Coburn's amendments were defeated is nothing new in the Senate, and it does little to temper their enthusiasm as Congress rushes to finish all of the funding bills for next year. At a time when the conservative base is lamenting its choice of presidential candidates as well as the priorities of the Oval Office's current occupant, the two are the leaders of a small group of Republican hard-liners working overtime against Democrats and Republicans alike to make a firm stand against what they view as out-of-control spending...
...their families financially benefit from those earmarks. It's that provision focusing on earmarks - measures that lawmakers have typically quietly inserted into legislation at the last minute to allot money for pet projects in their home states - that has drawn the loudest criticism from two conservatives, Sen. Jim DeMint, a Republican from South Carolina, and Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, as well as House Minority Leader John Boehner, who have derided the measure as mostly ineffective...
...reform while still leaving open loopholes. "If you want to fix what's wrong in Congress, you have to make the earmarking process completely transparent. We had a great strong bill in January and they gutted it." That bill, which passed the Senate almost unanimously, had stalled after Sen. DeMint blocked a conference committee from meeting to discuss and reconcile the bill's House and Senate versions because of his concerns that the earmarking provisions would be watered down...
...DeMint and Coburn are unhappy with a rule that would allow Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, and his committee chairmen - rather than the body?s parliamentarian - to determine whether earmark disclosure rules have been complied with. It's a technical point, admits DeMint, but a key one. "One of the reasons Americans have such a low opinion of Congress is that we pretend to do things that we don't actually do, and here we are just pretending to pass real reform," he said. "The [majority] leader can just say that no new earmarks have been added...