What's Happening in Expose Special Interests

Senate Finance Subcommittee Discusses Energy Tax Reform

The Senate Committee on Finance Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure met Wednesday, July 31 to discuss the...

Baucus and Hatch Propose Blank Slate Tax Reform

Today, Senate Finance Chairman Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Hatch (R-UT) sent a letter to their colleagues proposing “blank slate”...

Fiscal Year 2013 Continuing Resolution/Spending bills

The current CR and spending bills theoretically mimic the FY13 appropriations bills, but we’ve started looking to see where lawmakers added and subtracted dollars....

Top 10 Fiscal Cliff Tax Fails

Washington’s last minute deal to avert the fiscal cliff saw the return of many never-ending “temporary” tax breaks. While the bulk of the...

President Ms. Ryan Alexander Sliding Past Sequestration Statement

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 1, 2012 CONTACTS: Steve Ellis 202-546-8500...

Green Scissors 2012 Finds Environmentally Destructive Federal Programs

Left-Right coalition identifies practical steps Congress could take to slash deficits, save natural resources....

Senate Finance Committee Meets to Talk Energy Tax Reform

The Senate Committee on Finance held a hearing last week on tax reform and its impacts on energy policy. Among the four witnesses from...

Counting on Speculative Oil and Gas Revenues to Fund our Transportation Needs is Fiscally Reckless

Today the House Natural Resources Committee considered the energy portions of the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act (the...

A Legacy for Earmarks (updated 11/14/2011)

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee today passed its version of a transportation reauthorization bill, to replace the...

TCS Releases Report on Largest Ethanol Subsidy

Today Taxpayers for Common Sense released a comprehensive report on the largest subsidy to corn ethanol, the Volumetric Ethanol Excise...

TCS VP Steve Ellis on CNN discussing ways in which Congress is “Bypassing the Earmark Ban”

Members of Congress promised an end to earmarks, but guess what? They found another way to spend your money. In this Memorial Day...

TCS VP Steve Ellis Op-Ed: Earmarks are dead. Long live earmarks (CNN)

By Steve Ellis, CNNMoney guest columnist April 7, 2011: 11:31 AM ET Earmark reform: The end-arounds have begun -- Steve Ellis is Vice...

TCS Testifies at the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

On March 3, 2011 Taxpayers for Common Sense President Ryan Alexander testified at a House Committee on Oversight and Government reform...

Ongoing Analysis of Debate Over FY11 Continuing Resolution

The House of Representatives is debating a Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government for the rest of fiscal year 2011 (through...

Senate Appropriations Committee Announces Earmark Moratorium

Today, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI) announced a two year moratorium on earmarks. The call comes after...

TCS VP Steve Ellis on NPR: How To Get Around The Ban On Earmarks

Today, Taxpayers for Common Sense VP Steve Ellis spoke with NPR regarding ways to get around the earmark ban. You can listen to the NPR...

TCS VP Steve Ellis on MSNBC’s The Last Word discussing the Earmark Moratorium

Steve Ellis appeared on MSNBC's "The Last Word" program to discuss the earmark moratorium with Lawrence O'Donnell and Congressman Tim...

TCS mentioned by media outlets after TCS found 6,700 earmarks worth $8.3 billion in the Omnibus bill

Senate Democrats unveiled a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill yesterday.  The bill is over 1,900 pages in length.  Taxpayers for Common...

Sen. McCain mentions TCS work on the Earmarks Request Database on the Senate Floor

Dec. 14, 2010 Taxpayers for Common Sense was mentioned by Senator John McCain (R-AZ) on the Senate floor today about our work on the...

A Transportation Earmark is Still an Earmark

Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) told a local newspaper this week that she supports a ban on earmarks – but then turned around and said that...

TCS & Earmark Reforms Mentioned by Sen. James Inhofe on Senate Floor

Yesterday, while speaking on the Senate floor, Sen. Inhofe (R-OK) highlighted the earmark reforms that TCS developed with other...

TCS VP Steve Ellis discusses The Future of Earmark Transparency on Capitol Hill

Yesterday, the Advisory Committee on Transparency hosted “the Future of Earmark Transparency” on Capitol Hill. The Advisory Committee...

Good Government Groups & Lobbyists Hold a Briefing on The Future of Earmarks

Yesterday, Taxpayers for Common Sense Vice President Steve Ellis held a briefing alongside Melanie Sloan, Executive Director, Citizens...

Press Briefing: Nonpartisan Coalition of Lobbyists and Advocates to Announce Commonsense Earmark Ref

 Date: Monday, September 27, 2010 CAGW Leslie K. Paige 202-467-5334 lpaige@cagw.org TCS: Steve Ellis 202-546-8500...

Earmark Lobbyist Pleads Guilty; Lobby Shop’s Earmarks Detailed

September 24, 2010 (Update) Former high-powered PMA lobbyist Paul Magliocchetti has pleaded guilty to an illegal contribution scheme in...

UPDATE: Senate adds $2.6 billion in earmarks to defense spending bill

(September 16)  In passing its edition of the FY2011 defense spending bill today, the Senate Appropriations Committee didn’t add much to...

Senate Takes a Step Toward Earmark Transparency

By an 11-5 vote today the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee passed  S.3335, the Earmark Transparency Act of 2010....

Letter to Chairman Oberstar: TCS Supports Efforts to Rescind Unused Transportation Earmarks

Chairman James Oberstar House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 2165 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC...

Alaska Adopts Sensible Policy on Transportation Earmarks

Earlier this week, our attention was pointed to a new earmark policy released by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public...

Still Fortifying Against Barge Company Bailouts

The IWTF was created to pay for construction and maintenance on much of the nation’s most used waterways. Funded by a tax on fuel used...

Bipartisan Support for Earmark Database Bill Continues

(June 2)  Fully one-fifth of Senators have now joined efforts to show American taxpayers the true priorities of Congress. ...

House Republicans Adopt One-Year Earmark Moratorium

It’s been quite a whirlwind the last couple days. On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-WI) announced a...

House Spending Committee Continues Down Path of Earmark Reform

The House Appropriations Committee took a positive step today on the long journey toward earmark reform. Chairman David Obey (D-WI)...

Ethics Committee Ignores Earmark Problems

The House Ethics Committee today closed their investigation into ties between campaign donation to seven lawmakers and earmarks to the...

TCS Earmark Analysis and Proposal for Reform

The traditional partisan earmark split was maintained. Of earmarks requested by only Republicans or only Democrats, the old 60/40...

Watchdogs to Defense Secretary Gates: Tell Congress Earmarks Cannot be Tolerated

Government watchdogs yesterday sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates urging him to make it unmistakably clear to Congress...

Senators Deliver Earmark Cash for Campaign Contributors

Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) has cross-referenced earmarks sought and obtained by Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee members...

Inouye, Cochran Benefit from Earmark Recipients

Taxpayers for Common Sense has mapped the connections between earmarks and campaign contributions for the chairman and ranking member of...

Watchdogs Release Database Detailing Earmarks and Campaign Contributions

                                                                          For immediate...

House Defense Appropriators Rake in Earmarks for Campaign Contributors

Taxpayers for Common Sense analyzed the FY2010 Defense Appropriations spending bill that recently passed the House Appropriations...

House Defense Appropriations Committee Members Rake in Nearly $1 million from Potential Earmark Beneficiaries

A Taxpayers for Common Sense analysis found that the House lawmakers who write the annual defense spending bill asked for billions of...

House Commerce, Justice, Science Earmarks

The House Appropriatations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) released the list of earmarks from its...

Fight Over Weapons Cuts is About to Get Ugly

At Monday’s unveiling of major weapons cuts in the 2010 defense budget, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped members of Congress...

Recommendations to the President for Earmark Reform

At Taxpayers for Common Sense, we believe that all funding decisions must be made on the basis of merit, federal priorities and national...

Letter to the President: Pledge to Keep the Stimulus Earmark Free

The President The White House Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear Mr. President, On behalf of the millions of members of our respective...

GAO and Bailout banks

As part of the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) work on offshore tax havens, their most recent report – released today – really...

Earmark Reform Bill Introduced in the Senate

Taxpayers for Common Sense applauds Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) for...

Stimulus Not Needed for Department of Defense

Of all the industries in line for a handout in this financially frightening time, the defense industry would seem to bring up the rear....

Congressman Gets Earmark for His Church

Congressman Bobby Rush (D-IL) appears to have taken the saying “taking care of your flock” to another level. Rush, who is also an...

House, Senate Appropriators Offer Further Earmark Reforms

Today, the House and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman announced new earmark reforms for FY10 spending bills. The new reforms:...

Auto Bailout Draft Legislation

TCS has obtained a draft copy of the auto bailout legislation. Read the text here. We just got it and are looking through it, but...

President Approves $5 Billion in Defense Earmarks

The President today signed the 2009 Defense Authorization bill. While the levels of earmarks are down significantly from previous years,...

Coal-to-Liquid Earmarks DOD Appropriations

Today the House passed a Continuing Resolution and a minibus that included the final FY09 Defense spending bill, which had 6 earmarks for...

Senate Turns Against Earmark Reform

Tonight, the Senate passed the $612.5 billion Fiscal Year 2009 defense authorization bill. Virtually all the amendments to the...

White House Targets Contract Reform

The White House has targeted several contracting reform initiatives in the Senate defense authorization bill as veto-worthy, though its...

Wasilla, Alaska Benefited from Nearly $27 Million in Earmarks from 1996 to 2002

As Mayor of Wasilla between 1996-2002, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) helped get nearly $27 million in earmarked federal funding. Under her...

New Analysis: Lawmakers Cutting Their Earmark Calories

During this election year, lawmakers are showing slight restraint in writing the earmarks in the FY 2009 spending bills, according to an...

Missile Defense Finds Funds in Milcon Earmarks

This week we finished databasing earmarks in the Fiscal Year 2009 Senate bill that funds military construction and veterans’ affairs,...

Stevens Obtained $3.2 billion in earmarks between 2004-2008

Taxpayers for Common Sense has released the last four years of earmark data for Alaska to help create an understanding of how powerful...

TCS, Allies and Taxpayers Find 76 Lawmakers Publish Earmark Requests

Every year lawmakers submit tens of thousands of earmark requests to the Appropriations Committees. Only a percentage of these make it...

Istook Sent Earmarks to Six Abramoff Clients

A chief of staff for a former House Appropriations Committee Chairman pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to conspiring to defraud...

DeMint Earmark Moratorium Amendment Fails

So it finally happened at 10:30 tonight. The DeMint earmark moratorium amendment to the budget resolution came to a vote. When faced...

More on Earmark Transparency

We’re still waiting to see what Speaker Pelosi does; word has been that it will be today. Over in the Senate, it keeps getting more...

TCS Requests Ethics Investigation of Coconut Road Earmark

The Honorable Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Chairwoman The Honorable Doc Hastings, Ranking Member House Committee on Standards of Official...

Senate Passes Energy and Water Appropriations Bill

The following is a written statement from Steve Ellis, Vice President for Programs at Taxpayers for Common Sense on the Senate passage of...

TCS Statement on Efforts to Add Energy Amendments to Internet Tax Non-discrimination Act of 2003

The following is a written statement by Jill Lancelot, President of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a national budget watchdog on efforts to...

Analysis Finds House Energy Bill Fueled By Pork

Washington, D.C. -- The House of Representatives today passed a new energy bill loaded with billions of special interest provisions and...

Billions for Big Business in House Energy Plan

Billions for Big Business in House Energy Plan Washington, D.C. - An energy bill about to be...

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...