The Senate can’t advance a five-bill minibus appropriations package because of Republican divisions over earmarks. Republicans on the Senate appropriations committee want to pass the package before the end of the year. To do so, Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., needs unanimous consent to add four appropriation bills to the House-passed Defense appropriations legislation (HR 4016) on the Senate floor. Reports indicate that Republican leaders are currently working to address senators' concerns with the package to secure its passage.
Yet despite Republican leaders' efforts, the minibus remains stalled. Conservative Republicans are objecting to advancing it because the assembled package would contain over $5 billion in earmarks - in violation of the earmark ban in their conference rules. And pro-earmark Republicans on the Appropriations Committee object to removing earmarks from the minibus. They argue that Republicans’ prohibition in their conference rules is symbolic and that party members can't enforce it on the individual senators who request them.
But Republicans have tools to enforce party policies, such as their earmark ban. And Republicans could have avoided the current impasse if they were willing to use them.
