Preliminary disclosed earmark totals for the FY10 Omnibus:
Transportation/HUD: | 1481 | worth $1.207 billion | (FY09 $1.487 billion) |
MilCon/VA: | 182 | worth $1.100 billion | (FY09 $1.323 billion) |
Labor/HHS/Education: | 1780 | worth $811 million | (FY09 $973 million) |
Commerce-Justice-Science: | 1511 | worth $715 million | ($759 million) |
Financial Service: | 270 | worth $65 million | ($142 million) |
Total in disclosed earmark in FY10 Omnibus: |
5,224 | worth $3.898 billion |
At least in the disclosed lawmaker earmarks there has been a haircut from FY09 levels. When you add in the four bills that have already been enacted so far there are 7,577 disclosed earmarks worth $5.994 billion in FY10.
These are just disclosed lawmaker earmarks. What that means is they were not requested by the President at all. Also, we will eventually search the entire bill for “undisclosed” earmarks – projects that meet our definition but are not disclosed by Congress as earmarks. So we are far from a final analysis. Lastly, the big earmark enchilada – the defense bill – is yet to come. The FY09 defense spending bill had more earmarks ($4.9 billion) than this entire omnibus. So we will see a significant increase before we are done.
**Originally posted 12/9/09