For Immediate Release
September 12, 2007 |
Contact: Steve Ellis
202-546-8500 x126 |
Update (9/12/07): TCS has tallied all the undisclosed earmarks in the House Defense Appropriations bill, and found 70 earmarks at a cost of $3.5 billion. This brings the total earmarks in the defense bill to 1,409 at a cost of $6.5 billion.
Update (8/13/07): After further review of the manager's amendment, TCS has made some changes to the analysis below and to the attached database of earmarks. The result of this is that the number of earmarks increased from 1,337 to 1,339 and the total earmarked amount also changed slightly.
CONGRESS DISCLOSES $3 BILLION IN DEFENSE EARMARKS
Click Here for the Defense Database
Washington, D.C. - The House Defense Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2008 allocates the Department of Defense $459.6 billion, $3.5 billion less than the president’s request but nearly $40 billion more than last year’s appropriations. The bill does not provide the $141 million requested by the White House for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is slated to appear in an emergency supplemental in September.
The committee disclosed 1,339 earmarks worth $3 billion. This year is the first in which earmarks were disclosed under new House rules mandating that representatives identify their earmarks in letters to the committee certifying they have no financial interest in the project. The report accompanying the bill contained a chart listing projects and sponsors, but not the amounts of the earmark: TCS searched the report and added the value of the earmarks to our accompanying database.
In addition to the disclosed earmarks, TCS also found 70 undisclosed earmarks at a cost of $3.5 billion. The undisclosed earmarks include $31.5 million for the C.W. Bill Young Bone Marrow Donor Recruitment and Research Program and $25 million for the Arrow missile system, for which Rep.Steve Israel (D-NY) takes credit on his website.
The lion’s share of the earmarks can be found in the research, development, test and evaluation (RDTE) budget account. The largest of these include $21.8 million for “electronic combat and counterterrorism training” by FATS Inc. of Georgia, sponsored by Jack Kingston (R-GA), and $19 million for an “affordable weapons system,” sponsored by Duncan Hunter (R-CA). Hunter also added $1.5 million to the drug interdiction account for a southwest border fence—much less than the $8 million he requested in the defense authorization bill for the same project. The committee disclosed 26 intelligence-related earmarks, though the cost was not revealed in the bill’s report. These included the National Drug Intelligence Center, a project long supported by appropriations chairman John Murtha (D-PA) which Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) recently sought to eliminate in an amendment to the Senate Defense Authorization bill. Murtha disclosed $150.5 million worth of earmarks, while Defense Subcommittee Ranking Member C.W. Bill Young (R-FL) piled on $117 million in earmarks.
Though the Committee cut $298 million from the President’s request for missile defense, the program still generated plenty of earmarks. These include $3 million for a “safe high power lithium battery” for the Multiple Kill Vehicle from Joe Sestak (D-PA) and a $2.5 million Joint National Integration Center from Doug Lamborn (R-CO).The Army’s embattled Future Combat Systems also took a hit but still managed to pick up a couple of earmarks, including a $2.5 million project for “antiballistic windshield armor” from James Clyburn (D-SC) and “future affordable multi-utility materials” from Allen Boyd (D-FL) and Stephanie Herseth (D-SD). Though the committee avoided earmarks for troubled space programs such as the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS), it joined lawmakers on the defense authorization bill in earmarking extra money for space-based awareness programs. Also similar to the authorization bill was the tendency for these earmarks to go unsponsored, such as those for the “space radar” ($186 million) and the “space fence” ($9.8 million).
Candidates for the dubiously defense-related earmark category include the Christian Sarkine Autism Treatment Center, which received $2.5 million from Dan Burton (R-IN); the Center for Genetic Origins of Cancer at the University of Michigan, which got $3 million from John Dingell (D-MI) and Fred Upton (R-MI); and $1.5 million for an eponymous project at the National Bureau for Asian Research in Seattle, sponsored by Norm Dicks (D-WA). |
