Senator Stevens,Alaska, sitting on the Accountability and Transparency Act

Senator Stevens,Alaska, sitting on the Accountability and Transparency Act

puts anonymous hold on the US senate ?

A spokesman for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)
has confirmed that the senator is behind an
anonymous hold blocking an earmark reform bill sponsored by Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), and John McCain (R-Ariz.). (TPM Muckraker story)


Alaska pork
An appropriator and former head of the Senate's spending committee, Stevens has been accused of directing large amounts of pork barrel projects to Alaska. This was most recently highlighted by the intense scrutiny of the two "bridges to nowhere" that were included in the law authorizing federal transportation programs through 2010.

On October 20, 2005, Stevens threatened to resign from the Senate if lawmakers passed language that would have stripped money allocated for two bridges in Alaska and redirected it to Hurricane Katrina repairs in Louisiana. [10] (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/20/AR2005102001931.html) That language was defeated, but in the face of intense public and private criticism, Congress later defunded the bridges specifically and instead redirected the money to a pot for Alaska's general transportation use. Stevens said later that he would not resign over this action because the money is not being taken away from Alaska in general. The Senator's comments on December 21, 2005 after a contentious vote on a defense bill from which ANWR provisions had been removed again prompted speculation over his resignation. [11] (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/21/AR2005122102127.html)

On August 30, 2006, a spokesman for Stevens announced that the senator had placed an anonymous hold on the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 sponsored by Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), and John McCain (R-Ariz.). The bill would reform the earmarking process in Congress and, among other things, establish a searchable database of all federal government appropriations. [12] (http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001447.php)


see more at http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ted_Stevens#Alaska_pork





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