A Taxpayers for Common Sense analysis found that the House lawmakers who write the annual defense spending bill asked for billions of dollars in earmarks for companies that gave them nearly a million dollars in campaign cash over the last few years. All 18 members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense asked for earmarks for at least one company that had made campaign contributions either through employees or a company political action committee.
All told, members of the Subcommittee submitted more than $1.6 billion in earmark requests--and potentially a lot more. Reps. Kilpatrick (D-MI) and Kingston (R-GA) refuse to tell taxpayers exactly what they asked for, but indicated their offices received requests for more than $2.4 billion in earmarked projects, some of which were surely submitted. Leaving aside potential requests by Reps. Kilpatrick and Kingston, Committee members were behind at least 181 requests worth $845 million for 130 companies that had contributed $963,265 to them since 2007.
Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) topped the contribution list, requesting earmarks from companies who had given him $201,100 in campaign cash. Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA), the subcommittee Chairman, was hot on his heels with $199,050 in contributions from potential earmarked companies. The subcommittee ranking member, Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young (R-FL) was the other lawmaker to top $100,000, raking in $122,000.
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