Every year lawmakers submit tens of thousands of earmark requests to the Appropriations Committees. Only a percentage of these make it into the actual law by the end - last year more than 11,000 - but the requests provide insight into how lawmakers want to spend our precious tax dollars. Lawmakers are literally signing on the dotted line that this is worthwhile expenditure.
TCS, working with the Sunlight Foundation, Citizens Against Government Waste, and taxpayers across the country, found 76 lawmakers that disclose all of their requests on the internet. An additional 46 decline earmarks entirely. That brings the transparency total to 112 out of 535 members of Congress.
You can see a list of who is disclosing. The problem with keeping requests in the shadows is it inflates the number of requests to be dealt with, since a request doesn't cost anything. And it prevents earlier accountability and oversight. TCS encourages constituents to ask their lawmakers to come clean about where they are asking to spend your tax dollars.
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