Washington, D.C. - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) November 2007 Porker of the Month for airdropping a $3 million earmark for the First Tee golf program into the fiscal 2008 Department of Defense Appropriations Act conference report.  First Tee’s mission, according to its website, is “To impact the lives of young people by providing learning facilities and educational programs that promote character development and life-enhancing values through the game of golf.”   
 

Even a pork-happy Congress that inserted 2,074 pork projects worth $6.6 billion into this year’s defense bill initially rejected Rep. Clyburn’s earmark.  According to a November 10 McClatchy Newspapers report, “Clyburn said Friday he had to add the money to the defense spending bill in the conference committee because ‘it didn't make the cut’ earlier.”

Aside from its inappropriate placement in the defense bill, the First Tee funds were not competitively awarded and are certainly not need-based.  The program has enough green to run ads during nationally-televised professional golf events, has corporate sponsorships from Fortune 500 companies, and boasts some of the sport’s heaviest hitting organizations as “Founding Partners,” Augusta National Golf Club, the Ladies Professional Golf Association, the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) of America, the PGA Tour, and the United States Golf Association.

On November 8, 2007, Rep. Clyburn defended his wedge of pork on the House floor, “[T]his request was made by me, and my name is attached to it because I’m very, very proud of it.”  The earmark is not the only project with which his name is associated.  In August 2007, the City of Columbia Golf Center was renamed the James E. Clyburn Golf Center and a statue of him was erected outside the facility. 

First Tee has received $7.5 million in earmarks since 2003.  First Tee won CAGW’s “The Taxpayers Get Teed Off” Oinker Award in 2004 for receiving $3 million in two separate appropriations bills.  One earmark was for $1 million from the Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Education and its Character Education Program, added in conference.  These funds are intended solely for state and local education agencies, and they are disbursed through a competitive grant program.  In addition, the grants are supposed to be limited to a maximum of $500,000.  Based on these criteria, First Tee was not eligible for any of this funding.

The other $2 million for First Tee came from the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice Programs’ Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).  The COPS program began under President Clinton with the goal of adding 100,000 more police to the streets.  It is safe to say that First Tee would not put one cop on the street.

For chipping millions of taxpayer dollars from the Defense Appropriations budget in order to “putts” around with a pet golf project, CAGW names Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) its November 2007 Porker of the Month.

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.  Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.