Earlier this week in an editorial entitled “Washington’s spending corruption is a bipartisan rot,” we took to task Rep. James Oberstar, D-MN, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, along with Rep. John Mica, R-FL, the ranking minority member, for their collaboration in crafting a $500 billion transportation spending bill. We also included in that critique Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-OR, and Rep. John Duncan, R-TN, chairman and ranking minority member, respectively of a key subcommittee of that panel.
In the editorial, we noted, based upon calculations by Taxpayers for Common Sense, that “the bill includes nearly 12,000 earmarks, together worth more than $19 billion.”
We have since received a call from Jim Berard, communications director for the committee, with some additional information. In fact, there are zero earmarks in the bill now before the committee, Berard said. The bill will include earmarks later this summer after it finishes markup, but as of now it has no earmarks.
Berard said the committee has received 6,686 requests for funding for projects – i.e. earmarks – from 405 members of the House, worth a total of $136 billion. “There won’t be nearly that many in the final bill,” Berard said. The posted information on each earmark will include the amount sought, a statement from the requesting member that he or she has no financial interest in the project, and, possibly, a letter of endorsement from a local or state requesting official concerning the project.
A follow-up conversation with TCS found that they had indeed made an error. As somebody who has dealt with and relied upon TCS for years, I can attest that these guys almost never make a mistake and when they do, they quickly correct it when it is called to their attention.
