Senate Aide: ‘Everyone Gave Their Consent’ to ‘Kentucky Kickback’
Not a single U.S. senator objected to an appropriation dubbed the “Kentucky kickback” included in legislation passed Wednesday to reopen the federal government and raise the debt ceiling to avoid default, a senior Republican Senate aide told TheBlaze.
“Every single member of the Senate reviewed the list of appropriations and consented to have the vote,” the aide said.
The bill, which was negotiated between
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
(R-Ky.), contains several appropriations, including a more than $2
billion increase in authorized funding for the Olmsted Locks and Dam project, which runs through parts of Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky. The project has been under construction for nearly 20 years.
Senators had most of Wednesday to
review the bill and the list of appropriations, the aide told TheBlaze,
who said senators were given every opportunity to raise their concerns.
In fact, the aide said, the Senate vote was delayed so senators could have a chance to review the bill.
“This list [of appropriations] was
given out for all members to review,” the aide said. “So if there was
something in there they had concerns about, they could call the
Appropriations Committee or the (Office of Management and Budget) and ask them what it was and why it was necessary.”
“Members did that. Members read the
bill. Members read the list, they raised questions about some of those
things and some changes were made,” he said, adding that this is how
it’s done for virtually every major bill. “Once everybody was satisfied
with their review, we did call of the vote, asked for unanimous consent,
everyone gave their consent and we had the vote.”
The Senate Conservatives Fund was quick
to jump on McConnell for having “secured” the kickback for his home
state in the 11th-hour deal.
“In exchange for funding Obamacare and
raising the debt limit, Mitch McConnell secured a $2 billion Kentucky
kickback,” Matt Hoskins, executive director of the Senate Conservatives
Fund, said in a blog post. “This is an insult to Kentucky families who don’t want to pay for Obamacare and who don’t want to shoulder any more debt.”
“Mitch McConnell is trying to blame
others for this abuse, but everyone knows he negotiated this deal and
everyone knows he wrote the bill. If he didn’t want the earmark
included, he could have kept it out,” the post said.
The group’s allegations quickly spread on social media and were soon picked up by numerous media outlets.
In actuality, the nearly $2.1 billion appropriation authorizes an
increase in funding that was already approved for the Olmsted project.
It’s not a new project dreamt up by McConnell; federal dollars have
already been set aside for the project.
Second, McConnell did not request the
increase in funding. The request came directly from the Army Corps of
Engineers, which oversees the Olmsted project, and the White House,
according to both Democratic and Republican Senate aides.
The request came to the Senate
Appropriations Committee via the Office of Management and Budget, which
falls under the executive branch of the U.S. government. And that’s
generally how this works: The Office of Management and Budget makes a
request and the Appropriations Committee determines if it can be carried
out.
McConnell has supported the Olmsted project, which is economically important
to the areas it affects, but he did not request the appropriation
included in Wednesday’s Senate deal and did not author the $2 billion
provision. The language was specifically written and inserted
into the bill by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Lamar Alexander
(R-Tenn.), both of whom are members of the office responsible for
appropriations.
“Senator Feinstein and I, as chairman
and ranking member of the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee,
requested this provision. It has already been approved this year by the
House and Senate,” Alexander said in a statement to Time.
Additionally, had the Senate failed to
approve the $2.1 billion, it could have led to a net loss of about $160
million for taxpayers because of cancelled contracts, according to the
Army Corps of Engineers.
The facts regarding the Olmsted
provision have come to light since the Kentucky senator was first
accused of having “secured” the so-called “kickback.” Nevertheless, some
continue to doubt McConnell’s character, saying that his knowledge of
the appropriation raises serious questions about his trustworthiness.
But, again, everyone knew about the provision when they agreed to move the bill forward, according to the aide.
True, 18 Republican senators are
indeed on record voting against the Senate shutdown bill, but they knew
as much about the Olmsted provision as McConnell did when they agreed to
move the bill to a vote.
Either senators knew about the
appropriations and said nothing, or they didn’t read the bill. As of
this writing, no other conservative senators have been targeted for
their knowledge of the appropriation.
The Senate bill passed by a vote 81-18. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) did not vote.
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