Earmarks & Appropriations

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• Sandy at Six Months

  It’s been almost four months since lawmakers sent $60 billion to fund relief and recovery efforts...

  
• TCS Testifies Before House Oversight and Government Reform Committee

  Highlighting several areas for the committee to explore as we work to ensure that our precious tax dollars are being spent wisely...

  
• Sandy Spending Accountability

  We don’t like to think that taxpayers’ money could be allocated haphazardly, but there is no oversight mechanism to ensure Sandy spending will be used as it was intended...

  
• Reports & Data

  Sandy Supplemental Analysis

  Congress can't churn out a wasteful $60 billion emergency supplemental stuffed with non-emergency funding....

  
• Letters & Testimony

  Use Common Sense to Rappel the Fiscal Cliff

  Read our letter to President Obama, Speaker Boehner, and Leader Reid: We write to offer specific suggestions for how...

  

Congressional earmarks are one of the best examples of how Congress’ appetite for parochial spending led the nation into our current budgetary hole. Too often, lawmakers have based federal spending decisions on the needs of narrow private interests, rather than appropriating funds...More

only for effective, efficient programs that deliver taxpayers the greatest value. Though technically banned, earmark spending still exists in different forms, and is just one of many ways Congress sidesteps responsible budgeting and spending.

Although Congress is responsible for our nation’s finances, it continues to fail in its national budgeting, as evidenced by a national debt larger than our entire economy. The way forward lies in the legislative and executive branches working together to establish clear and transparent criteria and metrics for spending. They must ensure that all spending decisions are based on merit, competition, or well-designed and effective formulas.

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