Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.

House Republicans claimed that the new $1 trillion federal appropriations bill contained no "earmarks" for special member projects. But that assertion is disputed by several GOP senators.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was among 32 senators who voted against the measure last weekend. Rubio spokesman Alex Conant said a chief objection of the freshman senator was the inclusion of "billions in spending never requested by the authorizing committees."

Whether that fits the classic definition of an earmark is up for debate. But for Rubio and other critics, it's a distinction without a difference.

"They may not be 'traditional' earmarks, but they fit our definition of pork," Conant told Sunshine State News.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., says the defense budget alone contained more than $3.5 billion in "unauthorized spending."

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., charged that of 225 amendments approved by the House Armed Services Committee, 115 were earmarks, amounting to $834 million.

Elsewhere, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said she identified "at least 53 unrequested items in the Energy and Water section totaling $684 million."

“Representatives can insist all they want that they don’t do earmarking anymore, but if it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it’s a duck," said McCaskill, who faces a tough re-election fight next year.

McCaskill's complaints hit home late last week when House Armed Services Chairman Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., announced he was stripping $700 million in expenditures from his House bill.

McCaskill called McKeon's move "a clear admission that he and his colleagues attempted to circumvent the earmark ban."

Nonetheless, McCaskill voted against the overall appropriations bill. She was the only Senate Democrat to vote no.

The measure, which funded the government and kept it running past the weekend, cleared the House 296-121, with seven Florida Republicans voting against it.

Among the naysayers was Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, who said the short schedule for the so-called "megabus" bill allowed no time for any meaningful review.

“The decision to abandon the 72-hour requirement for this 1,217-page bill and rush through a stack of spending bills that should have been subjected to thorough review is disappointing," Posey said last week. (See earlier story here.)

McCain, a Vietnam-era Navy veteran and former prisoner of war, joined McCaskill on the warpath.

While acknowledging that last year's budget had far more earmarks totaling nearly $8.3 billion, McCain said this year's version remained riddled with excess spending.

In an analysis of defense appropriations, the Arizona Republican uncovered: