Barbara A. Mikulski, who’s retiring this fall as the longest-tenured woman in congressional history, minces few words and suffers fools hardly at all. So there’s little surprise the Democratic senator had a tart bit of advice to impart to her colleagues last week.

What’s remarkable is that her exhortation was among the most provocative and unscripted thing a lawmaker has said recently that got entirely overlooked.

“If I could say one thing to all of you: Bring back congressionally directed projects,” Mikulski declared to sporadic applause at the final markup of her 30-year career on the Senate Appropriations Committee, during which she reminisced about some of her prized victories in delivering tens of millions in federal tax dollars to her native Maryland. “I loved the earmarks I could do!”

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Delegation Clout Shifts in Aftermath of Earmark Era



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There’s a compelling rationale behind her farewell wish, although it has almost no chance of being granted in this legislative lifetime.