While much of my yime here will be focused on the Obama administration’s High Crimes and Misdemaeanors, Pork barrel spending has been around for ages. It is for this reason that I am specifically NOT using the Obama budget to point out wasteful spending.
One of the first things a new representative learns when he/she gets to DC, is that pork barrel spending brings money home to your district. Whether is is a project that creates jobs, or one that means a fat contract forone of your campaign supporters, YOUR job is suddenly to ensure your reelection.
This practice has gotten so out of control that in 2008, there was over $17 Trillion in completely wasteful spending from Washington. And this is going to be several times worse this year with the horrid stimulus package, but that will be another post.
And on and on and on… The watchdog organization “Citizens Against Government Waste” has been doing reports on Washington;s spending habits for many years. The following are just a few items from their 2008 Summary page.
I. AGRICULTURE
$15,115,446 for 17 projects by Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), including: $3,723,750 for a Natural Products Lab; $2,780,400 for the Jamie Whitten Delta States Research Center; $1,075,419 for the Agricultural Wildlife Conservation Center; $849,015 for genomics for southern crop stress and disease research; $511,395 for biotechnology research; and $229,383 for rural systems research.
$14,038,041 for 12 projects by Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Robert Bennett (R-Utah), including: $5,560,800 for the Agricultural Research Center in Logan; $2,616,555 for a Utah conservation initiative; $1,191,600 for function genomics research; $559,059 for high performance computing; and $186,684 for pasture and forage research.
II. Commerce, Justice, Science
$146,708,000 for 63 projects by CJS Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), including: $5,640,000 for the Marshall Space Flight Center; $470,000 for a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Maritime Museum in Mobile; $329,000 for American Village Citizenship Trust Montevallo for character programs in at-risk areas (the group’s website boasts that its mission is to “…to strengthen and renew the foundations of American liberty and self-government through citizenship education.” In addition to these lofty goals, young lovers can rent out the chapel and the barn to get married for $2,650.); $235,000 for the Foley Police Department for communications upgrades; and $235,000 for West Alabama Marine Shrimp and Fish Aquaculture to develop new methods and find efficiency in the development of marine shrimp and fish aquaculture using ponds and the salinic water of West Alabama.
$56,259,000 for 21 projects by Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), including: $11,280,000 for the Stennis Space Center; $7,520,000 for the Center for Marine Aquaculture (according to the senator’s website, “Funding will be used to create, develop, and commercialize new technology to meet America’s demand for warm water marine seafood. This program will lay the basis for the development of a new industry for Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico region.”); and $1,175,000 for Jackson State University for computer software and mapping.
III. Defense
$173,200,000 for 25 projects by Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), including: $25,000,000 for the Hawaii Federal Health Care Network; $23,000,000 for the Maui Space Surveillance System operations & research; $10,000,000 for the National Defense Center of Excellence for Research in Ocean Sciences; $5,000,000 for the Maui High Performance Computing Center; $3,500,000 for Army conservation and ecosystem management; $3,000,000 for the Hawaii National Guard Counter-Drug Program; and $2,000,000 for Brown Tree Snakes.
$165,700,000 for 22 projects by Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), including: $44,200,000 for the Access to Joint Tanana Training Complex; $11,000,000 for the Intermodal Marine Facility Port of Anchorage; and $3,200,000 for the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP). While the official stated goal of HAARP is to “further advance our knowledge of the physical and electrical properties of the Earth’s ionosphere which can affect our military and civilian communication and navigation systems,” conspiracy theories abound from it being a weapon of mass destruction to it being able to manipulate weather conditions around the globe. The truth is that the project has received $111.3 million in pork since 1995.
$144,624,000 for 26 projects by Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), including: $54,000,000 for the ABL Facility Restoration Program (according to an October 3, 2006 article in the Cumberland Times News, “Alliant Techsystems, also known as ATK, as the primary leasee of the Navy’s ABL facility, will benefit most from the improvements to the facility, …‘ATK is very pleased that Senator Byrd has continued to support the facility restoration program at [ABL]…. The upgrades … have allowed us to expand our business and offer the Department of Defense a wide range of quality products for our war fighters.’”); $18,000,000 for the AFIP Records Digitization Program; $5,600,000 for the Joint Interagency Training and Education Center; $4,800,000 for the Autonomous Maritime Navigation Program; $2,400,000 for economic production of coal-to-liquid fuels; $2,400,000 for research to reduce the environmental impact of coal-to-liquid fuels; and $900,000 for the Electronic Commodity Program.
$121,400,000 for 44 projects by House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.), including $23,000,000 for the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC). Rep. Murtha became infuriated by Rep. Mike Rogers’ (R-Mich.) motion to remove the NDIC earmark. According to Rogers, Rep. Murtha warned, “I hope you don’t have any earmarks in the defense appropriations bills because they are gone and you will not get any earmarks now and forever. … That’s the way I do it.” Since 1992, more than $509 million has been used to fund NDIC, which is administered by the Department of Justice (DOJ.). But DOJ has asked Congress to shut the NDIC down because its operations are duplicative. This project helped Rep. Murtha win CAGW’s 2007 Porker of the Year award.
IV. Energy and Water
$92,033,216 for 25 projects by Senate appropriator Mary Landrieu (D-La.), including $1,850,000 for the removal of aquatic growth and $1,180,800 for materials and energy research at Tulane University in New Orleans.
$82,164,000 by Senate appropriator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) for Columbia River fish mitigation in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. This project funds bypass facilities for migratory salmon and steelhead fish at the multiple dams along the Columbia River.
$57,655,568 for 31 projects by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), including: $3,444,000 for Tar Creek cleanup; $984,000 for the University of Oklahoma in Norman for the large scale application of single-wall nanotubes; $201,720 for restoration of Joe Creek; $21,648 for Bartlesville water supply; and $246,000 for the Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan.
V. Financial Services
$19,942,000 for four projects funding presidential libraries, including: $8,000,000 by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts; $7,432,000 by House Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee member Gary Miller (R-Calif.) and Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) for the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California; $3,760,000 by Senate appropriator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) for the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas; and $750,000 by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York.
Presidential libraries are constructed with private funds donated to nonprofit organizations set up for the purpose, and then are managed by the federal government under the National Archives and Records Administration, receiving annual operating subsidies. The JFK Library receives $3,883,000 annually, the LBJ Library receives $2,935,000 annually (and is the only presidential library that does not charge admission), and the FDR Library receives $1,640,000 annually. The Nixon Library is privately funded except, apparently, for earmarks.
VI. Homeland Security
$51,131,119 for 95 projects airdropped into the conference report for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Predisaster Mitigation by 72 members of the House of Representatives, spread among 31 states. That equals 76.7 percent of the number of projects and 17.3 percent of the dollar amount in the bill. According to FEMA’s website, the purpose of the Predisaster Mitigation Program is to provide funds to states, territories, Indian tribal governments, communities, and universities for hazard mitigation planning and implementation of mitigation projects prior to a disaster. The recipient of the grant decides based on applications what is most deserving within its jurisdiction. In fiscal year 2008, the program had a budget request of $100 million. Many members of Congress have criticized FEMA for its mismanagement of numerous programs over the past several years. However, they are making the agency’s job harder by forcing staff to administer projects that may not meet the competitive program’s criteria and usurping the agency’s authority.
$50,000,000 for REAL ID grants. The REAL ID Act, which set federal minimum standards for authenticating and securing driver’s licenses supposedly to thwart terrorism, was buried in an $82 billion supplemental military spending bill and passed without congressional debate in May 2005. While the proposal to use radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology in the state-issued driver’s licenses was dropped by DHS in February, 2007, the REAL ID program remains a burden on taxpayers, at an estimated cost of $23 billion.
Passed as an unfunded mandate, the REAL ID Act stipulated that a state would not receive any future federal funds designed to help offset the cost of the program if it did not follow the minimum federal standards for updating licenses. Bringing state driver’s licenses systems up to date with adequate security provisions will be a costly endeavor; adding further requirements such as developing a new database to store information will be technologically challenging and add to the cost. Ultimately, taxpayers will be forced to both pay more for their driver’s licenses and be subject to tax increases to help offset the expenditures that are not covered by the higher license fees.
VII. Interior
$32,391,682 for 10 projects by Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), including: $9,844,000 for the San Joaquin Valley and South Coast Air Quality Management Districts for targeted emission reduction grants and $7,875,200 for Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyard cleanup. According to a January 12, 2007 article in The San Francisco Chronicle, Hunter’s Point may be an option for a new football stadium: “Feinstein has also been involved in renewed stadium talks between the 49ers and Mayor Gavin Newsom’s administration, which recently offered an alternative stadium site at the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.”
$16,833,240 for eight projects by Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee member Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), including: $3,937,600 for the Tongass Timber Supply Pipeline; $3,937,600 for the United States Geological Survey Volcano Observatory; $2,953,200 for the Alaska Conveyance Program; and $492,200 for the Craig Recreation land transfer.
VIII. Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor/HHS)
$93,416,000 for 35 projects by Senate appropriator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), including: $33,907,000 for the Alaska Native Educational Equity Education Act; $6,875,000 for the Denali Commission for job training activities under the Denali Commission Act of 1998; $243,000 for the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage for a partnership with Koahnic Broadcasting for a Native Values project; $243,000 for a marine ecosystem education program at the Alaska Sealife Center in Seward; and $243,000 for the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District to expand the PLATO learning program.
$42,672,000 for 25 projects by Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), including: $4,875,000 for the University of Mississippi for Phase II of the National Center for Natural Products Research; $487,000 for workforce training in Marine Composite at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg; $975,000 for Mississippi State University for digital conversion at the Wise Center-Broadcast Facility; and $195,000 for an international study abroad program at Tougaloo College, which has an endowment of $4.7 million.
$40,430,050 for 44 projects by Senate Labor/HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), including: $6,337,000 for two earmarks for the Iowa Department of Education to continue the Harkin Grant Program; $1,500,000 for the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute (dedicated to creating jobs and strengthening communities); $731,000 for the Presidential Timeline Project at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation in Austin (which provides digitized information from presidential libraries); $390,000 for the support of the residency program at Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra; $316,000 for a best practices initiative on lower back pain at Palmer College of Chiropractice in Davenport (giving taxpayers a big pain just below the back); $146,000 for the Italian-American Cultural Center of Iowa in Des Moines for exhibits, multimedia collections, and displays; and $97,000 for Iowa Games in Ames to continue the Lighten Up Iowa Program, which instructs individuals on how to lead a healthy lifestyle.
X. Military Construction
$36,900,000 for four projects funding chapels, including: $11,600,000 by Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-Kan.) for phase I of the chapel complex at Fort Leavenworth; $10,400,000 by Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) for a chapel at Fort Leonard Wood; $9,000,000 by Senate Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee member Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House appropriator Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.), and Rep. Edward Whitfield (R-Ky.) for a chapel center at Fort Campbell; and $5,900,000 by Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) for a unit chapel at Fort Lee.
XI. State and Foreign Operations
$16,700,000 added by the Senate for the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC). The IBWC’s mission is “to provide binational solutions to issues that arise during the application of United States-Mexico treaties regarding boundary demarcation, national ownership of waters, sanitation, water quality, and flood control in the border region.” One particular project, a proposed sewage treatment plant in Tijuana, raises questions about the IBWC’s effectiveness. According to an op-ed in The San Diego Union Tribune on February 14, 2007, “Formed in 1944, the IBWC in 1999 built a treatment plant in San Ysidro. But it was late and over-budget, and its discharge still violated the Clean Water Act. This created an opening for Bajagua, a group of North County investors with a bold proposal to build a larger, better and cheaper plant in Tijuana. The IBWC quickly rejected the idea, because the agency wanted more money from Congress to upgrade its new plant.”
XII. Transportation/Housing and Urban Development (THUD)
$37,681,000 for 23 projects by Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), including: $2,940,000 for bus and bus facilities at the Coast Transit Authority; $2,940,000 for expansion of a section of Highway 9 to four lanes; $1,470,000 for the Statesman Boulevard and Trail; $196,000 for the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation in Vicksburg for renovation of the Southern Cultural Heritage Center Auditorium; $196,000 for construction of a multipurpose facility in Marietta; and $196,000 for the Taylor Hall Renovation Project in the city of Grenada.
$33,005,420 for 35 projects by Senate appropriator Christopher “Kit” Bond (R-Mo.), including: $1,470,000 for statewide bus and bus facilities; $551,250 for the Heart of America Bicycle/Pedestrian Bridge; $367,500 for improvements to Downtown Square Street in Grant City; $367,500 for redevelopment of the 11th and Grand neighborhood in Kansas City; and $183,750 for restoration of the Poplar Bluff Historic Depot.
Even with all of what I have posted here, this is just the tip of the iceberg. If we hope to turn our declining economy around, we need to STOP ALL PORK BARREL spending.
