{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/latest-headlines/republicans-closed-meeting-over-earmarks-riles-missouri-senator", "Republicans' closed meeting over earmarks riles Missouri Senator", "2016-11-24", "2016", "2016-11", "Democrat", "House", "MO", "Claire McCaskill", "M001170", "www.mccaskill.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Republicans' closed meeting over earmarks riles Missouri Senator \r\n                \r\n                     Claire McCaskill pledges to block any earmarks that emerge from the House of Reps \r\n                \r\n            \r\n            \r\n                Thursday, November 24, 2016\r\n            \r\n            \n\t\n\r\n            \r\n            \r\n                  \r\n                    By:\u00a0\r\n                    Eric Dundon\r\n                \r\n            \r\n            \r\n                \r\n                \r\n                \r\n            A U.S. Senator representing Missouri is lamenting efforts to undo years-long work to ban earmarks in Congress. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, has been a leader in ending funding of politicians\u2019 pet projects through earmarks. A bipartisan bill McCaskill has co-sponsored seeks to permanently ban the practice, which she has called wasteful.\r\nLast week, U.S. House Republicans nearly approved \u2014 then withdrew for further consideration next year\u2014 a plan to bring back congressional earmarks in a closed-door meeting, according to reports from national news sources, including Fox News.\r\nMcCaskill, the Senate\u2019s leading Democratic opponent of earmarks, called on Missouri\u2019s U.S. House delegation to reject such a vote, and pledged to use Senate rules to strip any earmarks that emerge from the U.S. House.\r\n\u201cSo Donald Trump is elected President with a promise to \u2018drain the swamp\u2019 and the one of the first things his party in the U.S. House does is head into a closed-door meeting to try to bring back earmarks?\u201d asked McCaskill, a former Missouri State Auditor. \u201cThis is exactly what Americans are mad about. Missouri\u2019s U.S. House members and all House Republicans need to reject this idea, and if they don\u2019t, I\u2019m going to do everything I can to block any earmarks that emerge from the House.\u201d\r\nAccording to reports, House Speaker Paul Ryan shut down the vote on earmarks just as it was about to pass in a closed meeting.\r\n\u201cEvery Republican in the U.S. House should have to answer for why they thought this was a good idea in the first place,\u201d McCaskill said after the action.\r\nFor years, the earmarking process was notorious for its secrecy and lack of oversight or accountability, with funding for politicians\u2019 pet projects often awarded based on political influence instead of on merit. Large amounts of money earmarked for projects has sat in the halls of Washington. Earlier this year, $72.6 million of trapped earmarked funds were released to assist in funding transportation projects in Missouri. More than $3 million will be used to upgrade U.S. Highway 61 in Ralls County.\r\nThese funds were originally earmarked by Congress for use 10 or more years ago, but because they were duplicates, or the project was scrapped, among other reasons\u2014the funds were never used.\r\nA provision included in last year\u2019s highway bill, based on legislation McCaskill introduced with Republican Senator Jeff Flake, allowed these resources to be spent on critically needed transportation and infrastructure projects within a 50-mile radius of the project site of the original earmark.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n            \r\n             \r\n            \r\n            \n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/latest-headlines/republicans-closed-meeting-over-earmarks-riles-missouri-senator"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0866830125451088, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}