The Hill News

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) "makes no apologies" for collecting earmarks for his home state, Reid's spokesman said Monday.

Reid stood by the projects he'd directed to Nevada during a watershed day for earmark reform. President Obama joined the Senate's top Republican and several Democrats in calling for a ban of the practice, which designates spending for specific projects in a lawmaker's state or district.

“It is up to each senator whether or not they will support Congressionally directed funding to their state," Reid spokesman Jim Manley said in a statement. "From delivering $100 million in military projects for Nevada to funding education and public transportation projects in the state, Sen. Reid makes no apologies for delivering for the people of Nevada. He will always fight to ensure the state's needs are met.”

That statement serves as a signal that Reid is unlikely to call for Senate Democrats to adopt a ban on ea! rmarks the way House and Senate Republican leaders have done.

Reid's Senate GOP counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), reversed course Monday to favor a conference-wide moratorium on earmarks that had been proposed by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).

The president threw his weight behind that development, saying he welcomes  McConnell’s "decision to join me and members of both parties who support cracking down on wasteful earmark spending."

Obama wasn't the only Democrat on Monday to join the push for earmark reform. Sen. Mark Udall (Colo.) said on Twitter that he would no longer request earmarks, and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who'd previously opposed the practice, called on fel! low Democrats to "get on board."