[nky]

This was added to the budget settlement. Is the senior senator from Kentucky crazy? Besides agreeing to the terms of the budget to add this pork to it is strange for someone running for re-election. Does this hurt him in his primary run against a Tea Party candidate.
eriously:

RIVER PROJECT
Kentucky kickback?: $2.2 billion. That's the amount in additional cash authorized for a project that involved a dam and decades-old locks on a river that flows through Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's home state of Kentucky. Sounds kinda fishy, but a Democratic senate aid and a Republican senator say it's on the level. The aide tells CNN that McConnell didn't push for the project to be included. And Sen. Lamar Alexander, who's a key figure on the committee that oversees what water projects get what money, says he and another senator asked for the cash. He tells CNN's Chris Frates the new money -- which more than triples the original $775 million -- will save the federal government many millions because contracts won't be canceled due to work stoppages. Still, the Senate Conservatives Fund calls the money a "Kentucky Kickback."