(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Senator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) Porker of the Month for adding $40 million in pork to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief (H.R. 1268).  Among the pork-barrel funds the senator is sending home at the expense of taxpayers, homeland security, and the well-being of our troops are $10 million for a library and $3 million for a tropical agriculture research program.

The Emergency Supplemental — intended to bring much-needed funds to American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and to protect the nation from terrorists — has fallen prey to appropriators determined to weigh down the bill with unrelated and inappropriate projects.  Sen. Inouye rises above his colleagues as the most flagrantly wasteful and disgraceful pork-barreler in H.R. 1268. 

In a press release posted on his website, Sen. Inouye proudly boasts to his constituency that he has ostensibly picked the taxpayers’ pockets to bring home the bacon.  His $40 million in earmarks will “help the University of Hawaii’s Manoa Campus recover from last October’s massive flooding and severe storms, and to minimize the possibility of similar floods occurring in Manoa Valley again.”  The projects break down as follows:

• $16.8 million for future flood damage mitigation, including $15 million for the Natural Resources Conservation Service and $1.8 million for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to perform flood studies; and,
• $23 million for replacement costs not covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and flood insurance, including $10 million for the Hamilton Library; $3 million for the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources; and the remaining $10 million to cover “unreimbursed” expenses related to flood damage.

The $10 million for “unreimbursed” expenses suspiciously coincides with Hawaii’s mandatory 25 percent matching funds for the FEMA grant, meaning that the senator may have hijacked federal funds to pay off the state’s fair share.

Prior to the senator’s earmarks, FEMA had already released $30.5 million for relief and repair efforts, in addition to the more than  $30 million already provided by Hawaii state bonds, general funds and state flood insurance.  Furthermore, the state legislature is considering legislation to retroactively increase the cap on insurance to allow the University to receive additional money from the state flood insurance program.

With the latest round of earmarks, Inouye has added more loot for a state already swimming in pork.  In fiscal 2005, as detailed in CAGW’s 2005 Congressional Pig Book, Hawaii raked in a total of $574 million in pork, or $454 per person in pork spending (compared to the national average of $33 per person), the third highest per capita total in the country.

For unabashedly continuing a career of wasting taxpayer dollars; using federal funds to further a local interest at a cost to national security, military welfare, and humanitarian relief; and congratulating himself from his pulpit while the deficit spirals out of control, CAGW names Sen. Daniel Inouye its Porker of the Month for April 2005.

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating
waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.