Senate Democrats Serve Up a Pork Substitute

Democrat Debbie Stabenow helped secure $744.2 million in earmarks for her home state of Michigan at the start of her second term in the Senate. But doling out pork is no longer allowed, so in Stabenow’s current reelection campaign she’s had to find other ways to look out for her constituents. The lawmaker included expanded crop assistance programs in the $969 billion farm bill she wrote as chairwoman of the Agriculture Committee and persuaded Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–Nev.) to let her open debate on the legislation early, some four months before the current one expires.

Sponsoring a big bill can afford the same kind of bragging rights that lawmakers used to score for piggybacking their pet spending projects on someone else’s work. For Stabenow, the timing was also brilliant, given the crippling crop losses Michigan farmers suffered this spring because of extreme weather.