This Hill report says Senators McCain and Feingold are working together on legislation involving earmarks.

The measure aims to prevent unauthorized earmarks in appropriations bills by requiring all appropriations conference reports to be made electronically searchable 48 hours before the Senate considers them for a vote.

The bill also would establish a point of order against unauthorized earmarks. To overcome the point of order, supporters of the earmark would need to obtain a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate. Earmarked funding that is successfully stricken from the spending bill would be unavailable for other spending in that bill, thereby reducing the bill’s overall spending level.

In the past, the McCain-Feingold collaboration resulted in the 2002 campaign-finance law that placed more limits on political contributions and caused great consternation among conservatives.

On Wednesday, the pair joked that Feingold was the lead sponsor of the new earmark bill, and so this effort would be referred to as “Feingold-McCain.”