Washington, D.C. – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today published a comprehensive list of the 447 earmarks worth $7.6 billion in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, H.R. 1585.  The bill is one of the first to fall under a new House rule that requires public disclosure of an earmark’s sponsor, recipient, amount, and justification.

CAGW presents the earmark list in a convenient, searchable Microsoft Excel format.  The House Armed Services Committee version, while in the committee report, is difficult to read and cannot be searched.  Highlights of the earmark list include:

• $2.42 billion for the C-17 Globemaster III, requested by seven members:  Reps. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), Rob Bishop (R-Utah), Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.), Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.), and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) for Boeing in Long Beach, Calif.; Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) for the USAF Aeronautical Center, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio; and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) for Vought Aircraft Industries, Dallas, Texas;
• $5.3 million for a parachute drying tower at the NAS Oceana in Dam Neck Annex, VA, requested by Rep. Thelma Drake (R-Va.);
• $4 million for a light utility vehicle for the Chenowth Product Racing Company, Inc. in El Cajon, CA, requested by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.);
• $3 million for the Parents as Teachers, Heroes at Home Family Counseling Program in St. Louis, Missouri, requested by Reps. Nancy Boyda (D-Kan.), Adam Smith (D-Wash.), and Don Young (R-Alaska);
• $1.9 million for a military working dog facility at Fort Riley, Kansas, requested by Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-Kan.);
• $1 million for a multi-level parking facility at Fort Bliss, Texas, requested by Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas); and
• $600,000 for an addition to a fitness center at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas, requested by Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas).

“The House Armed Services Committee should be applauded for its transparency, although in the future, it would be helpful to make its reports searchable and more readable,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.  “It remains to be seen whether the House Appropriations Committees will have the courage to display earmarks according to House rules.”

On May 24, The Washington Post reported that House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) will keep earmarks out of spending bills, while inserting them “in the closed-door meetings between House and Senate negotiators known as conference committees,” which are not subject to House disclosure rules.

The Defense Authorization Act earmark list is available on CAGW’s website www.cagw.org.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.