Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, will offer an amendment on the Senate floor shortly that if adopted will ban the practice of trading earmarks for votes in the Senate. In order for the Senate to have an opportunity to vote on the DeMint measure, Senate rules will have to be suspended, something that is rarely done.The text of the DeMint amendment reads as follows:
"(a) IN GENERAL.--It shall not be in order in the Senate to consider a congressionally directed spending item, a limited tax benefit, or a limited tariff benefit, if a Senator, Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner has conditioned the inclusion of language to provide funding for a congressional directed spending item, a limited tax benefit, or a limited tariff benefit in any amendment, bill, or joint resolution (or an accompanying report) or in any conference report on a bill or joint resolution (including an accompanying joint explanatory statement of managers) on any vote cast by any Senator, Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner."
The South Carolina Republican decided to offer the amendment in the wake of the national uproar against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's buying of votes for Obamacare, including the infamous $300 million "Louisiana Purchase" for Sen. Mary Landrieu's vote, agreeing to Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson's demand that the federal government begin paying his state's Medicaid costs in perpetuity, and a $10 billion program to create free medical clinics across the country, as demanded by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
A DeMint aide said the amendment is similar to one his boss co-authored with Sen. Richard Durbin, D-IL, in 2007. A similar rule is already in effect in the House of Representatives. The 2007 Durbin-DeMint amendment, which included a ban on earmark vote-trading, passed the Senate by a vote of 98 to 0. The Senate vote-trading rule was dropped in closed-door negotiations with the House and was not part of the final legislation signed by the President.
Senate rules will have to be suspended because Reid has blocked all further amendments to Obamacare. A motion to suspend Senate rules requires the votes of two-thirds of those present on the Senate floor at the time.