Reports & Data

Supporting Passenger Mobility and Choice by Breaking Modal Stovepipes: Comparing Amtrak and Motorcoach Service

This analysis compares customer costs (fare, travel time) and societal costs (government subsidies, air emissions) associated with twenty specific trips that can currently be taken between select U.S. city pairs on both an Amtrak train and on a scheduled intercity motorcoach bus....

Essential Air Service Dataset

The Essential Air Service (EAS) is a federal subsidy program created in the 1970s as part of airline deregulation. Though the program was...

Sandy Supplemental Data

As Washington debates the merits of a supplemental spending bill in response to superstorm Sandy, this database lists of all the spending...

Analysis of Selected Provisions in Hurricane Sandy Emergency Spending Proposals

Update January 10, 2013: We’ve combed through the House Appropriations Chairman Rogers Sandy Supplemental bill (HR 152 and his...

Subsidizing Oil Shale: Tracing Federal Support for Oil Shale Development in the United States

With fiscal cliff looming, TCS calls for end to government handouts for failed oil shale experiments....

Earmark Data

Even under an existing moratorium, earmarks have received a lot of attention in the media, in Congress, and around the water cooler in...

Coal Subsidy Database

Over the years the coal industry has received billions in federal subsidies, in a variety of forms including direct grants, loan...

Sliding Past Sequestration: $2 Trillion in Common Sense Cuts to Avoid the Fiscal Cliff

In the summer of 2011, Congress sent the President a bill that acknowledged failure. Instead of swallowing hard and coming up with...

Green Scissors Report 2012

Green Scissors 2012 is produced by Friends of the Earth, Taxpayers for Common Sense, and R Street to highlight and end wasteful and environmentally harmful federal spending. This diverse coalition of environmental, taxpayer and free-market groups has come together to show how the government can save billions of tax dollars and improve our environment. ...

Spending Even Less, Spending Even Smarter

A report from the Project on Government Oversight and Taxpayers for Common Sense published May 8, 2012 including recommendations for National Security Savings FY 2013 to FY 2022 Deficit Reduction $688 Billion....

Miscellaneous Tariff Bill Data

The Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) is a compendium of more than two thousand tariff waivers which reduce the fees importers pay for a...

Defense Assets Data

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is the largest federal agency in the United States, consuming more than half of discretionary...

TIGER III Grant Awardees Named

The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) today awarded $511 million worth of grants to support 46 projects in 33 states and...

Cashing In: Biofuels Industry Buys Congress’s Continued Support

Taxpayers for Common Sense released today a report detailing the heavily subsidized biofuels industry's political clout. The biofuels...

Bridging the Gap: Redirecting Investments to Fix the Nation’s Bridges

A large portion of the nation’s 600,000 bridges are in poor condition and require investment to repair or replace. Congress, by virtue of...

Super Cuts for the Super Committee

Taxpayers for Common Sense has been working hard to meet the challenge of that the so-called Super Committee is facing - $1.2-1.5...

Comparison of Essential Air Service Program to Alternative Coach Bus Service

Report Highlights Significant Savings in Essential Air Service Program...

After 9/11: A Decade of Watching War on Terror Spending

This week marks the ten-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Our national security...

Comparing Proposals for a National Infrastructure Bank

With extension of the nation's surface transportation program currently being debated in the halls of Congress, policymakers are...

Green Scissors 2011

Taxpayers for Common Sense joined environmental, consumer watchdog, and free-market groups today to release Green Scissors 2011, which...

Spending Less, Spending Smarter: Recommendations for National Security Savings FY 2012 to FY 2021

Watchdog Groups Identify Nearly $600 Billion in National Security Spending Cuts WASHINGTON, D.C.—The federal government could save...

Earmark Terms Glossary

Categories of Earmarks Disclosed Lawmaker: Earmarks Earmarks that appear in the explanatory statement of an appropriations bill for...

Big Oil, Big Corn: An in-depth look at the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit

Big Oil, Big Corn: An in-depth look at the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit Corn has been subsidized since the 1930s, but it was...

Repair Priorities: Transportation Spending Strategies to Save Taxpayer Dollars and Improve Roads

June 1, 2011 Taxpayers for Common Sense and Smart Growth America released a report highlighting smarter investments in road repair and...

Subsidy Gusher: Taxpayers Stuck With Massive Subsidies While Oil and Gas Profits Soar

There are a couple of basic truths about oil and gas companies today--they are highly profitable, heavily subsidized, and well-connected...

The Most For Our Money—Highlighting Solutions for the Nation’s Transportation Problems

Transportation dollars are tight. The gasoline tax that we rely on to build and maintain our transportation networks isn’t enough to meet...

Common Sense Cuts—$900 billion in savings over 10 years

The time has come for Congress to begin a serious discussion about how it is going to correct the current budgetary path into deeper and...

TCS Budget Cut List for the 112th Congress: Tax Expenditures

Tax Expenditures Total Cuts: $624 billion Cuts Include: Mortgage Interest Deduction Cut: $390 billion LIFO Cut: $52.9...

TCS Budget Cut List for the 112th Congress: National Security

NATIONAL SECURITY Total Cuts: $95 billion Total Achieved Savings: $7 billion For too long, the defense budget was considered...

TCS Budget Cut List for the 112th Congress: General

General Total Cuts: $421+ million Cuts Include: Shift Congressional Pensions to Defined Contribution Overseas Private Investment...

TCS Recommended Budget Cut List for the 112th Congress: Transportation

Transportation Total Cuts: $18.7 billion The nation’s transportation system is broken, as the gasoline tax that each of us pays at the...

TCS Budget Cut List for the 112th Congress: Infrastructure

Infrastructure Total Cuts: $6 billion For nearly two centuries, the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) has been a way for lawmakers to...

TCS Budget Cut List for the 112th Congress: Agriculture

Outdated and ineffective farm policies waste billions of federal funds each year, jeopardize fragile lands and waters and no longer...

TCS Recommended Budget Cut List No. 2: Total Cuts $205+ billion

The time has come for Congress to begin a serious discussion about how it is going to correct the current budgetary path into deeper and...

TCS Budget Cut List for the 112th Congress: Energy

Taxpayers have been subsidizing the same mature, polluting energy technologies for decades. Many projects and outdated programs still...

TCS Recommended Budget Cuts for the 112th Congress

The time has come for Congress to begin a serious discussion about how it is going to correct the current budgetary path into deeper and...

FY2011 Omnibus Appropriations Earmark Database

(Originally Posted 12/17/2010) Taxpayers for Common Sense has completed an initial database of the 6,706 earmarks worth $8.3 billion...

Fair Market Value for Wind and Solar Development on Public Land

A review and analysis of the laws and regulations governing the collection and use of revenues from commercial energy development on federal lands and is a guide for policy-makers to use in developing appropriate policies for wind and solar energy projects....

TCS Releases Database of FY11 Earmark Requests

Taxpayers for Common Sense, WashingtonWatch.com, and Taxpayers Against Earmarks teamed together to develop a database of all fiscal year 2011 earmark requests....

TCS Preliminary Earmark Analysis for FY 2011

Originally Posted 10/19/2010: The FY2011 budget is a mess. Congress has not finished a single spending bill. The House has approved...

Common Sense Reforms for the 112th Congress

As the dawn of the 112th Congress draws near, there are several reforms Congress should enact, regardless of which party is in control....

Ethanol Editorials: Newspapers Across the County Agree - End Ethanol Subsidies!

 Newspapers Across the Country Agree: End Ethanol Subsidies! In light of TCS’ release of the Green Scissors 2010 Report on July 22 and...

Good Government Groups and Lobbyists Jointly Release Common Sense Earmark Reforms for the 112th Congress

TCS joined with other nonprofit good government groups and several Washington lobbyists to hammer out some jointly agreed upon earmark...

UPDATE—$7.7 Billion In Earmarks In 2009 Omnibus Spending Bill (updated 3/13/09)

March 13, 2009 Update: Version 5 is now available.   This version includes member state and party, and also allows for a partisan...

Green Scissors 2010

Taxpayers for Common Sense joined a number of environmental and consumer groups and a bipartisan slate of Representatives today in...

Exploring the Relationship Between Earmarks and Campaign Contributions

Taxpayers for Common Sense and the Center for Responsive Politics have joined to release a comprehensive database that links campaign...

FY10 Omnibus Disclosed Earmark Numbers

Preliminary disclosed earmark totals for the FY10 Omnibus: Transportation/HUD: 1481 worth $1.207...

FY08 & FY09 Earmarks and Related Campaign Contributions

**Update: September 16 -- For Fiscal Year 2010 Earmark Databases, click here** Taxpayers for Common Sense and the Center for Responsive...

Complete Database of House and Senate Earmark Requests

After searching all 99 senate websites (remember the Coleman/Franken Minnesota race is still unresolved), we now have a complete database...

Visclosky FY08 & FY09 PMA Client Earmarks

The FBI has subpoenaed various records and documents from Rep. Visclosky’s (D-IN) offices in relation to the previously raided PMA Group...

Database of FY2010 Earmark Requests

Update (May 7, 2009):  It has now been just over a month since the deadline for members to disclose on their websites all FY2010 earmark...

TCS Releases Space Security Database

Space is crucial to our national security, and we’ve got the skyrocketing budgets to prove it. The United States spends billions on...

Report: U.S. Spends Over $52 Billion on Nukes

How much does the United States spend on nuclear weapons? Seems like a simple question that the agency charged with tending our nuclear...

Congressional Oversight Panel for the Bailout Releases First Report

The Congressional Oversight Panel for Economic Stabilization has released its first report on the $700 billion Emergency Economic...

Bailout Bank Bio: Goldman Sachs

On October 28, 2008, Goldman Sachs received $10 billion of the first $125 billion from the $700 billion bailout bill. Goldman Sachs is a...

In their Own Words: U.S. Senators and the Bailout

TCS staff have scoured the web and wires for press releases or other official statements on the bailout from United States Senators in...

President Signs Earmark-Laden Spending Bill

President George W. Bush signed a massive year-end spending bill late Tuesday, just hours before a new fiscal year began. The "Minibus"...

Stevens Tops FY2009 Earmark Heap

As Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) sat today in a federal courthouse while jurors were chosen in the federal trial against him, he received at...

2,321 Earmarks worth $6.6 Billion in Minibus Legislation

After a bit of speed reading, TCS staff came up with earmark totals for the CR/Def/DHS/MilCon bill that was released 13 hours ago. These...

Sample of Earmarks in the FY09 Minibus

It’s slow going looking through the earmarks, but here’s a few – some are repeat customers and some are rookie earmarks. More to...

Congress Releases $600 Billion Spending Bill for 2009

Late last night, the House released the more than $600 billion FY09 CR/MiniBus legislation, to fund much of the government through early...

FY2009 Appropriations Bills: TCS Analyses and Earmark Databases

The following are links to TCS's analysis and database for each of the FY09 appropriations bills. (Note: With the exception of House...

Senate Adds $5.2 Billion in Earmarks to Defense Authorization Bill

The Senate is expected to pass the 2009 Defense Authorization Bill sometime tonight, but to do so they will have to resolve a raucous...

Sen. Obama (D-IL) Requested $860.6 million in earmarks FY2006-FY2008

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) requested 326 projects worth $860.6 million between FY2006 and FY2008, according to a Taxpayers for Common Sense...

Cost of War Reports

Below are links to the monthly “Supplemental and Cost of War Execution Reports” compiled by the Defense Accounting Finance Service, DOD’s...

110th Congress By the Numbers

      110th Congress By the Numbers   1932 House or Senate Resolutions...

Senate Energy and Water Earmark Total Nearly Identical to Last Year

The Senate Appropriations Committee’s FY2009 Energy and Water appropriations bill contains 1,480 earmarks worth $3.50 billion (click here...

Very Little of Iraq Oil Surplus Goes to Rebuilding

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report tabulating U.S. and Iraqi expenditures on rebuilding efforts (click here for...

Nearly $200 million in Agriculture Earmarks in Senate Bill

The Senate Appropriations Committee included 307 earmarks worth about $197.2 million in the Fiscal Year 2009 Agriculture Appropriations...

House Earmarks $721 Million in Military Construction Appropriations Bill

The House of Representative today passed a bill to fund Military Construction and Veterans Affairs programs in fiscal year 2009 contains...

House Appropriations Committee Starts to Move

Well, the House Appropriations Committee filed the Military Construction spending bill. This is the first show of actually moving bills...

Cost of Senate Labor-HHS Earmarks Increase Significantly

The FY 2009 Senate Labor-Health and Human Services-Education Appropriations bill contains 942 earmarks for a total cost of more than $847...

Oil and Gas Subsidies, Profits and Production: Colorado and Across the Nation

This is the first in a series of state specific analyses Taxpayers for Common Sense is completing on energy industry subsidies, profits and production. The goal of these analyses will be to raise awareness of the national subsidies the oil and gas industry receives....

Database of Congressional Earmarks for FY2008

**First posted Feb. 14, 2008** Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) staff and interns have devoted thousands of hours to researching,...

Ending the Earmark ATM: Despite Reforms, Earmarks Continue to Thrive

Congress disclosed 11,234 earmarks worth $14.8 billion in this year’s spending bills. An additional $3.5 billion worth of earmarks were...

Taxpayers for Common Sense Releases New Earmark Database

Despite reform, new database finds that Congress hasn’t lost its appetite for pork Washington, D.C. – Congress has cut earmarks by 23...

Banking on the Future

Investing in Smart Water Strategies for Pennsylvania and the Nation...

Road to Ruin: The 27 Most Wasteful Road Projects in America

Road to Ruin documents 27 road projects that will drain federal tax dollars, harm communities, and damage the natural environment. In total, these projects would cost federal taxpayers at least $24 billion....

Crossroads: Congress, the Corps of Engineers, and the Future of America’s Water Resources

The nation’s largest water management agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is at a crossroads. The Corps is poised to either...

Golden Fleece: $190 Million Bridge to Nowhere

***This article first published June 12, 2003 when TCS was the first to shed light on the "Bridge to Nowhere"*** Rep. Don Young...

TCS Report: The Cost of War

War has always been expensive and the war in Iraq is no different. The United States has already spent $1 billion dollars on cruise...

Energy Polluter Poised to Reap $62 Billion in Taxpayer Handouts

WASHINGTON, DC - Government subsidies to oil, coal and nuclear power industries could double if the Senate passes the House energy bill...

From the Ashes

Reducing the Harmful Effects and Rising Costs of Western Wildfires...

Passing the Buck

How the Mining Industry Used Outdated Rules to Pass Environmental Cleanup Costs to Taxpayers...

Troubled Waters

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is wasting billions of dollars on environmentally harmful projects, charges a new report by Taxpayers...

Welfare for Waste

How Federal Taxpayers Subsidies Waste Resources and Discourage Recycling...

Pentagon Follies

How the Department of Defense Is Wasting Your Tax Dollars...

Budget of the Living Dead

How 13 Budget Zombies Are Devouring Your Tax Dollars...

Syria: Excuse 535 To Not Cut the Deficit

Volume XVIII No. 37 Possible action in Syria has become the most recent excuse du jour for Pentagon boosters...