For Immediate Release
September 19, 2007 |
Contact: Steve Ellis
202-546-8500 x126 |
INOUYE, STEVENS PACK SENATE DEFENSE BILL WITH EARMARKS
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Washington, D.C. - The Senate Appropriations Committee saved the biggest bill for last by finally passing the fiscal year 2008 defense appropriations bill. The legislation allocates $459.3 billion to the Department of Defense, $3.8 billion less than the President’s request but only $300 million less than the House bill.
In all, the legislation includes 936 earmarks worth $5.2 billion. That’s about 400 fewer earmarks than what the House defense bill disclosed, but the House bill’s total cost is some $2 billion greater (TCS found an additional 70 undisclosed earmarks worth $3 billion). The final FY 2007 defense appropriation bill contained 2,646 earmarks worth $10.5 billion.
Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI) came out on top of the earmark heap, sponsoring 26 earmarks worth $203 million and co-sponsoring three projects worth $11.5 million with Hawaii’s other Senator, Daniel Akaka (D). These include $8 million for the High Accuracy Network Determination System (HANDS), an Air Force radar system that is a perennial recipient of lawmaker-directed funds from the Hawaii delegation, including Representative Neil Abercrombie (D). Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-WV) added 26 earmarks worth $166.7 million, and secured three more worth $29 million with other lawmakers. Committee Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-MS) on his own sponsored 15 earmarks worth $76.5 million, along with another 21 earmarks worth $78.6 million that he co-sponsored with Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS).
Defense subcommittee Ranking Member Ted Stevens (R-AK) was a close second, independently backing 22 earmarks worth $190 million. Stevens partnered with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) on two additional projects. One of these is a $4.7 million earmark he and Murkowski added to the Air Force operations and maintenance account for the Alaska Land Mobile Radio, which also received a $2 million earmark from Stevens alone in the Air Force’s procurement budget account. A 2006 State of Alaska audit of the Alaska Land Mobile Radio project found that the program suffered from “uncoordinated and inconsistent management of the project [which] has contributed” to cost overruns, shoddy accounting and budget planning.
The committee pledged to follow the ethics and earmark transparency bill signed by President Bush the day after the markup. In that vein the committee inserted charts throughout the legislation to identify projects added by lawmakers. Though the charts named project sponsors, the committee failed to disclose the public and private entities that will receive the earmarked dollars, as the House did. The financial disclosure letters available on the committee web site do not name the beneficiaries or location, and contain only blanket declarations that the lawmaker has no financial interest in the earmarks they attached to any appropriations bill.
Committee cuts to the Pentagon’s budget request include programs such as the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship system, missile defense programs and the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization. Some of these programs receive some supportive earmarks, however: Six senators earmarked $35 million for “short-range ballistic missile defense,” while another coalition earmarked $40 million for Arrowmissiles. Even programs that enjoy full funding in the bill, such as the Army’s Future Combat Systems, V-22 Osprey and Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, receive earmarks: Unmanned vehicle-related programs received at least 26 earmarks worth $91 million. The committee also added two $240 million earmarks for the Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine program despite that the Pentagon did not request any money on grounds that funding two engines is unnecessary and wasteful.
Other notable earmarks:
- Former Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) gave $2 million to the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program, set up through earmarks in 2004 to provide scholarships to students who intend to work in U.S. intelligence agencies
- Lamar Alexander (R-TN) added six projects worth $34 million benefiting the Tennessee National Guard, including three different training systems.
- The bill contains three earmarks related to coal-to-liquid technologies. Sen. Byrd inserted two $3 million earmarks in the defense-wide RDTE section of the bill under materials and biological technology for "economic production of coal-to-liquid fuels" and to "reduce environmental impact of coal-to-liquid fuels." Sen. Lugar (R-IN) inserted a $1 million earmark under Air Force RDTE, Defense Research Sciences, for "coal transformation laboratory."
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