A report issued Monday by a taxpayers watchdog group has found that lawmakers have actually increased the use of “earmarks” this year compared to last year in the House, despite pledging to reform the way Congress secretly funds these pet projects.
According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, the number of projects funded by earmarks has “drastically increased” in spending bills passed or under consideration in the House this year. The group found senators to be a little more frugal. Spending on earmarks so far in that chamber has decreased by 15 percent, the report notes, but the Senate is still on target to outspend the House on earmarks.
This year’s earmarks so far total $5.86 billion in the Senate and $5.12 billion in the House, but the total number is likely to be much higher because Congress will likely fold most of the spending measures into an “omnibus” bill.
Congress spent $18.3 billion on 11,780 separate earmarks in the 2008 spending bills.
The Democratically led Congress has not sent any of the 2009 spending bills to President Bush’s desk, in part because he has threatened to veto any that have not cut earmark spending in half. So far, just one bill has passed the House.
Taxpayers for Common Sense used that bill and 14 others made available by Congress to calculate that the Senate has reduced earmark spending by 15 percent, and has cut the number of projects by about 5 percent.
Meanwhile, the House has increased spending on such projects by more than 7 percent compared to last year and increased the number of projects in those bills by 5 percent.
“We know more information about earmarks than we did before this Congress, we have more information and certainly there have been some strides with transparency,” said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. “As far as cutting the dollar mark on earmarks, that has been a little slower going.”
Among the earmarks included in the 2009 spending bills is $22 million for the East-West Center in Honolulu, which is aimed at strengthening American-Asian relations, and $270,000 for the Montana Sheep Institute. Congress has resisted earmark reform because earmarks are one of the only ways for lawmakers to bring federal funding back to their constituents. But some members of Congress have championed earmark reduction and even earmark elimination.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., earlier this year tried to impose a one-year ban on earmarks, but the Senate voted down his proposal.
“This report proves that even in trying economic times, politicians can’t let go of their pork and reduce federal spending,” DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton said. “Americans want an end to wasteful Washington spending, and the first step is closing the earmark favor factory.”
Democrats, though, say the Republicans had the chance for improvement and missed it.
“Democrats have increased transparency so that Members must list their earmarks so that everyone knows who requested the money and what the project is,” said Brendan Daly, spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. ” And last year, the Democratically-led Congress cut the total amount of earmarks nearly in half from the previous year when Republicans were in charge.”
