Although Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) is stepping down as Senate Republican leader this year, he plans to serve out the remainder of his six-year term — which doesn’t end until January 2027 — and he’s still trying to get Kentucky as much federal funding as possible, according to Roll Call reporters Peter Cohn and Ryan Kelly.
McConnell, they report, has “returned to the earmarks game with gusto” by “grabbing nearly half a billion dollars reserved for Kentucky residents in the FY 2025 budget bill.”
“McConnell joins three Republicans who are supporting appropriations for the first time — Todd Young of Indiana, Roger Marshall of Kansas and Ted Budd of North Carolina — bringing the number of Republican senators supporting home-state projects to 21, the highest since appropriations were reinstated three years ago,” Cohn and Kelly said. “They join all Democrats — except Jon Tester of Montana and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire — and the four independents appointed to committees by or in coalition with the majority.”
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Cohn and Kelly point out that McConnell’s “conference is still overwhelmingly opposed to earmarking funds.” The Senate minority leader has said he wants to make sure Kentucky “always lives within its means” when it comes to funding.
Roll Call journalists note: “McConnell’s $498.9 million worth of projects in eight of the Senate’s new appropriations bills are all the more remarkable considering he suspended the earmarks process in each of the first three years after Democratic leaders reinstated it in 2021 after a 10-year absence…. At the bottom of the Senate’s earmarks process, awarded less than $40 million, are first-time Republicans Young, Budd and Marshall, as well as Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., who angered many of his colleagues by protractedly holding back many military nominations last year.”
According to Cohn and Kelly, Young “secured $18.5 million in the Interior Environment Act for three EPA water infrastructure projects.”
“Marshall has only one request – $4.2 million in the farm bill for water management around Rattlesnake Creek in central Kansas – which he shares with fellow Republican Jerry Moran, a senior budget official,” the reporters note. “The only Democrat in the lowest category is Bob Menendez of New Jersey, who will resign after his conviction on federal corruption charges.”
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Read the full article from Roll Call at this link.
