So the House Energy and Water spending bill approved yesterday included 1,010 earmarks worth $3.2 billion. We think that’s a lot, but then there’s the Senate behemoth with 1,759 earmarks worth over $6 billion!

The House approved the E&W supplemental report that incorporated the earmarks into the bill the House debated last month.  This was to meet the earmark transparency rule requirements, but boy was it torturous. The earmarks and funding levels are organized one way in the report (essentially organized by state) and another in disclosure portion which has earmarks and sponsors. So if you want to know the pertinent information about an earmark (project, amount and sponsor) you have to not only look at two lists, but there is a different taxonomy and some cases slightly different names. That’s a good way to make the window of transparency a lot more opaque.

We’ve found similar machinations in the House Labor/HHS bill, which we should finish shortly.

So what is in the bill? Well, it runs the gamut. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) got $1.1 million for Wind Spires as an Alternative Energy Source. Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young (R-FL) got $2 million for the WaterReuse Foundation. The members of the subcommittee took home the lion’s share of the earmarks, with Chairman Visclosky bringing home $27 million by himself, not including earmarks he got with other lawmakers.