The military construction bill was the last vehicle suitable for earmarks. The formidable Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the Appropriations subcommittee chairman handling that measure, was determined to conclude action on it in a Senate-House conference. With uncharacteristic anger last week, a frustrated Chairman Cochran said he was not about to take dictation from two freshman senators. But they blocked the conference from taking place.
As this became clear last Thursday, a second triumph for the reformers loomed with apparent imminent passage of Coburn's "report card," under which the Pentagon would grade earmarks on a scale of A to F. Before the election recess, the Senate voted 96 to 1 to add that proposal to the Defense appropriations bill. But the fix was in. The House removed the Coburn amendment by a 394 to 32 vote, while promising to consider it as a free-standing bill in the lame-duck session.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter went on the House floor Thursday to approve the report card. But the appropriators struck back. Rep. Bill Young, chairman of the Defense appropriations subcommittee, argued: "I don't want the Pentagon to spend all that time grading the work that we in the Congress do." Rep. Ike Skelton, Hunter's Democratic successor, said the next Congress "will offer a better approach." Young and Skelton both predicted the report card would inhibit earmarking. The proposal was voted down Friday, 330-70, with only two Democrats voting for it.
The issue of spending reform is now in Democratic hands. Emanuel, the newly elected House Democratic Caucus chairman, on Nov. 17 e-mailed colleagues with a call for reform. The takeover of the House that he led as Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman, Emanuel said, sent a message that "it's time for a change, and change starts by cleaning up Washington." But in reiterating the Democratic campaign's promises to "reform lobbying and ethics rules," Emanuel did not mention the corrupting influence of earmarks.