Like the House, the Senate has opted to protect the clients of the PMA lobbying firm, whose contributions to Democrats are the subject of a federal investigation. Just over an hour ago, by a vote of 43 to 52, the Senate rejected Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R, Okla.) amendment to eliminate the PMA earmarks from the Omnibus bill. Coburn’s statement explains the details:

“Instead of draining the swamp, Congress is protecting the polluters. The Senate could have removed 13 earmarks from this bill that are associated with the PMA Group, a K Street lobbying firm under investigation by the Justice Department over whether the firm made illegal campaign contributions to members of Congress who requested earmarks. Yet, the Senate decided to defend business as usual at the earmark favor factory. The American people want change now. They shouldn’t have to wait for further investigations, search warrants and possibly prosecutions to motivate us to restore the public’s trust in Congress.”

Arlen Specter (Pa.) and George Voinovich (Ohio) were the only Republican to support PMA. The six Democrats to vote against the PMA earmarks were Evan Bayh (Ind.), Michael Bennett (Colo.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Bill Nelson (Fla.), Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) and Russ Feingold (Wis.).