“Then one of the 12, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, ‘What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?’ And they covenanted with him for 30 pieces of silver.”
Matthew 26:14-15.
A conservative group is accusing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) of including an earmark for a water project in the deal to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling.
The Senate Conservatives Fund tagged the provision the “Kentucky Kickback,” and said it would benefit the Olmsted Locks and Dam, which is under construction on the Ohio River between Kentucky and Illinois.
“In exchange for funding ObamaCare and raising the debt limit, Mitch McConnell has secured a $2 billion earmark,” the group wrote in a statement. “This is an insult to all the Kentucky families who don’t want to pay for ObamaCare and don’t want to shoulder any more debt.”
The debt-ceiling bill legislation could be one of the last appropriations bill to pass before year’s end, and senators seized the opportunity to attach funding for projects and natural disasters in their home states.
Section 123 of the bill calls for increasing the authorized funding for the Olmsted Locks and Dam project to $2.9 billion.
McConnell’s office told The Hill on Wednesday evening that the senator was not responsible for the dam funding authorization increase, instead referring to the White House and leaders of the Senate committee that is responsible for appropriations.
More at The Hill
