Deceased Senator Receiving Earmarks

Among the many story lines that played out during the crafting and eventual passing of the Omnibus Act was that former Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) had his name eliminated from the nine appropriations bills in the Omnibus, yet a deceased member, former members, and Cabinet members remained.  If the new Congress had time to scrub Sen. Stevens’ name from the Omnibus, they surely had plenty of time to scrub the bill of all earmarks.

The outrage of millions of taxpayers following the $700 billion bank bailout and the $787 billion stimulus bill did not stop Congress from passing and President Obama from signing a bloated $410 billion Omnibus Appropriations Act in March.  With the subsequent approval of the President’s budget, the national debt will triple over the next 10 years.

In fiscal year 2009, Congress stuffed 10,160 projects into the 12 appropriations bills worth $19.6 billion.  The projects represent a  12.5 percent decrease from the 11,610 projects in fiscal year 2008.  The $19.6 billion is a 14 percent increase over the fiscal year 2008 total of $17.2 billion, belying claims of reduced spending.  Total pork identified by Citizens Against Government Waste since 1991 adds up to $290 billion.

Although this is the second year of so-called transparency, which requires every earmark to be identified with the requesting member of Congress,  $6,430,414,000 was spent for 142 anonymous projects.  This accounted for 6.6 percent of the earmarks and 57 percent of the cost in the bill.  There were several big-ticket items, including:  $88,000,000 for one C-40 aircraft; and $70,230,000 for one C-37B aircraft.

In total, out of the 10,160 projects in the 2009 Congressional Pig Book there were 9,939 requested projects worth $11.8 billion and 221 anonymous projects worth $7.8 billion.

I.  AGRICULTURE

Appropriators loaded up on less agriculture pork this year. The number of projects decreased by 23.9 percent, from 614 in fiscal year 2008 to 467 in fiscal year 2009, while the cost decreased by 9.6 percent, from $388 million in fiscal year 2008 to $351.1 million in fiscal year 2009.

II.  Commerce, Justice, Science

In fiscal year 2008 the number of projects in the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations Act decreased by 13 percent while the cost dropped 47 percent.  This year, the number and total cost of projects fell again.  The number of projects decreased by 10.6 percent, from 1,731 in fiscal year 2008 to 1,548 in fiscal year 2009.  The cost was down by 7.1 percent, from $1 billion to $936.8 million.

The Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, administered by the Department of Justice, accounted for 37.8 percent of the total number of projects (585) and 23.5 percent of the cost ($220.1 million).  In fiscal year 2008, the Office of Management and Budget’s Program Assessment Rating Tool gave the COPS program a “results not demonstrated” rating, which “indicates that a program has not been able to develop acceptable performance goals or collect data to determine whether it is performing.”

III.  Defense

On the strength of an extremely expensive collection of “anonymous” projects, which do not contain the name of any representative or senator, dollar amounts in the 2009 Department of Defense (DOD) Appropriations Act skyrocketed by 53.5 percent, from $7.3 billion in fiscal year 2008 to $11.2 billion in fiscal year 2009.  The absence of such information violates congressional rules and contradicts repeated claims of more transparency in the appropriations process.  Since the number of projects increased by only 1.1 percent, from 2,108 in fiscal year 2008 to 2,131 in fiscal year 2009, it would not have been too much work to fill in the blanks.  The DOD Appropriations Act proved yet again that given the opportunity members of Congress would rather fund parochial projects instead of the Pentagon’s defense priorities.

IV.  Energy and Water

There is some relatively good news in the fiscal year Energy and Water Appropriations Act: earmarks in the bill are back down to their fiscal year 2006 levels after climbing sharply in fiscal year 2008.  The number of projects decreased by 46.3 percent, from 1,782 in fiscal year 2008 to 957 in fiscal year 2009.  The total cost of the projects was 42.5 percent less than in fiscal year 2008, falling from $3.8 billion to $2.2 billion.

V.  Financial Services

While totals are down in most appropriations bills, there was a substantial increase in pork in the fiscal year 2009 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act.  The number of projects increased by 22.8 percent, from 215 in fiscal year 2008 to 264 in fiscal year 2009, while dollar amounts increased by 47.9 percent, from $98.7 million in fiscal year 2008 to $145.9 million in fiscal year 2009.  The Small Business Administration (SBA) has long been a bastion for pork, and this trend continued in fiscal year 2009.

VI.  Homeland Security

The amount of taxpayers’ money wasted on Homeland Security pork has continued its decline over the past two years from its peak in fiscal year 2007 at $2.4 billion.  The number of projects in this year’s Homeland Security Appropriations Act decreased 8.9 percent, from 124 in fiscal year 2008 to 113 in fiscal year 2009, while the dollar amount decreased 22.1 percent, from $294.8 million in fiscal year 2008 to $229.6 million in fiscal year 2009.

VII.  Interior

After falling by 40 percent in fiscal year 2008, the cost of Interior appropriations is on the rise.  Fiscal year 2009 Interior Appropriations Act earmarks will set taxpayers back $433.7 million, up 7.4 percent from $403.8 million in fiscal year 2008.  The number of projects in the bill decreased by 2.3 percent, from 556 in fiscal year 2008 to 543 in fiscal year 2009.

IX.  Legislative Branch

There is a common saying in theater that “there are no small parts, just small actors.”  Earmarks in the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act confirm that there is no appropriations bill too small to earmark.  While the scant number of earmarks in this bill  do not usually grab much media attention, any earmark is one too many.  The number of projects decreased by 25 percent, from 4 in fiscal year 2008 to 3 in fiscal year 2009.  The amount of pork dropped by 5 percent, from $400,000 in fiscal year 2008 to $380,000 in fiscal year 2009.

X.  Military Construction

While there were big changes in other appropriations bills, the fiscal year 2009 Military Construction, Department of Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act was fairly similar to the fiscal year 2008 version.  Fiscal year 2009 saw a decrease of 7.9 percent in projects, from 191 in fiscal year 2008 to 176, while the dollar amount increased by 6.7 percent, from $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2008 to $1.3 billion in fiscal year 2009.

XI.  State and Foreign Operations

Once again the House and Senate certified this appropriations bill as “earmark free.”  Unfortunately for taxpayers, there were 16 earmarks and they weren’t free they cost $256 million.  This is a 60 percent increase in projects from fiscal year 2008, when there were 10 projects, and a 235.6 percent increase in dollars from the $76.3 million in fiscal year 2008.

XII.  Transportation/Housing and Urban Development (THUD)

With all the talk about the supposed lack of spending on infrastructure and economic development during the 2009 stimulus debate, taxpayers might think the federal government hasn’t spent a dime on roads, bridges, bikeways, or economic development.  But Pig Book readers know that in the last two fiscal years for which individual appropriations bills were passed (2006 and 2008), CAGW identified 4,738 THUD earmarks costing more than $5.2 billion.  While the bill is larded up this year with 1,789 earmarks totaling $1.5 billion, that is a 11.9 percent decrease in the number of earmarks from fiscal year 2008 and a 3.1 percent decrease in cost.

Alaska once again led the nation with $322 per capita ($221 million).  The runners up were Hawaii with $235 per capita ($302 million) and North Dakota with $222 per capita ($142 million).

Access to the information above can be found at http://www.cagw.org.  The Citizens Against Government Waste 2009 Congressional Pig Book Summary was written by David E. Williams, vice president, policy, Sean Kennedy, research associate, and Kerrie Rushton, visiting fellow.