Two U.S. senators who left office last month are still bringing home the bacon. Sens. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) and Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) bid their colleagues farewell in November, but not before requesting 62 earmarks worth more than $141 million in the Democrats’ omnibus spending bill.
Burris and Kaufman were filling out the unexpired Senate terms of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden (D-Del.) until Election Day. They were succeeded last month by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.).
The retired senators’ requests represent a small fraction of the 6,600 earmarks included in the 1,924-page omnibus spending bill. Senate Democrats introduced the $1.27 trillion legislation Tuesday.
Of the two ex-senators, Burris comes out on top. He requested 25 earmarks totaling $112,294,000. Kaufman requested 39 earmarks worth $60,693,000. Both of their names appear on two requests.
Many of Burris’ most expensive earmarks would fund education or health projects. But he also requested $745,000 for soybean research — a pork-barrel project that made Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) list of the most outrageous requests in the omnibus.
Kaufman’s requests fund transportation, police, health and education projects. He also made 11 requests for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, including $645,000 for a solar farm in Delaware.
