Steve Elliott, President, Grassfire.org Alliance

3/14/2008

Last night, at 10:25 p.m., the Senate voted to establish an earmark moratorium for fiscal years 2009. By a margin of 71-29, the vote failed. Following the vote, 71 Senators--mostly pork-loving democrats along with 26 Republicans took the fast train out of town to begin their Easter Recess.

Here are the Senate Republicans--along with their shocking "Pork totals" for the year and their phone numbers:

Bennett (R-UT) $296.1 million        202/224-5444

         Bond (R-MO) $529.9 million        202/224-5721

         Brownback (R-KS) $365.6 million        202/224-6521

         Bunning (R-KY) $23.7 million         202/224-4343

         Cochran (R-MS) $977.7 million        202/224-5054

         Coleman (R-MN) $231.9 million        202/224-5641

         Collins (R-ME) $137.8 million        202/224-2523

         Craig (R-ID) $150.2 million        202/224-2752

         Crapo (R-ID) $150.5 million        202/224-6142

         Domenici (R-NM) $600.0 million        202/224-6621

         Gregg (R-NH) $93.9 million         202/224-3324

         Hagel (R-NE) $102.0 million        202/224-4224

         Hatch (R-UT) $241.7 million        202/224-5251

         Hutchison (R-TX) $839.2 million        202/224-5922

         Lugar (R-IN) $146.4 million        202/224-4814

         Murkowski (R-AK) $63.8 million         202/224-6665

         Roberts (R-KS) $333.0 million        202/224-4774

         Shelby (R-AL) $635.1 million        202/224-5744

         Smith (R-OR) $273.0 million        202/224-3753

         Snowe (R-ME) $126.5 million        202/224-5344

         Specter (R-PA) $404.4 million        202/224-4254

         Stevens (R-AK) $524.5 million        202/224-3004

         Vitter (R-LA) $386.8 million        202/224-4623

         Voinovich (R-OH) $170.6 million        202/224-3353

         Warner (R-VA) $702.2 million        202/224-2023

         Wicker (R-MS) (totals unavailable)  202/224-6253

NOTE: Statistics provided by http://www.taxpayer.net

Following the vote, Sen. DeMint remarked, "Tonight, too many in Congress embraced the earmark favor factory and proved why we have the lowest approval rating in history...

Sen. McCain, who canceled appearances to make certain he was present for the vote added, "We're disappointed that only 29 members of the U.S. Senate understand that the American people want us to stop this practice, which has led to corruption."

++Pork Barrel Battle is not over

McCain is right, Americans do want this corrupt process stopped, and Grassfire will continue to lead the grassroots charge to bring about change.

This was a setback, but beginning Monday, I promise you, we will have formulated a plan of action that will target those 26 Republicans and 71 Democrats who blatantly turned a deaf ear to the American people. We will be heard!

Thank you for your excellent help. I hope I can count on your continued efforts as we work together to end congressional earmarking.

Steve

P.S: Forward this message to your friends and encourage them to take action with you by clicking below, and signing our petition:

http://www.grassfire.org/96/petition.asp?PID=15591347

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