Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) requested 326 projects worth $860.6 million between FY2006 and FY2008, according to a Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) analysis of earmark requests disclosed by the Senator. Sen. Obama did not request any earmarks for FY2009.
The variance between this number and other published reports occurs because TCS did not include requests for four national projects appearing on Sen. Obama’s FY08 request list. TCS did not include these as earmarks in any of the FY08 lawmaker tabulations. (See the database below for the projects)
The Senator averaged nearly $286.9 million per year in earmark requests over the period he requested earmarks. However, over his term in the U.S. Senate (including the year he did not request earmarks) his four year average was $215.1 million.
The earmark request numbers are higher than the dollar amount of earmarks obtained. As an example, of the $321.8 million requested by the senator in FY2008, the final appropriations bills contained $98.6 million of Senator Obama’s original requests.
(Download a database of Sen. Obama's earmark requests, FY2006-FY2008)
(Download a database of Sen. Obama's FY2008 earmarks)
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