Washington, D.C. – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released its preliminary analysis of the Fiscal 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Act.  Contrary to media assertions, including a November 4^th article in The New York Times stating that congressional earmarks have been cut by 50 percent, the numbers in the Labor/HHS bill do not bear that xxxx out.  There were 2,274 projects in this year’s Labor/HHS bill, compared to 3,071 the 2005 bill, which was the last time that.  In Military Construction, the numbers stayed almost static, with 145 projects totaling $1.1 billion.  In 2006, the last time a Military Construction appropriations bill was passed, members of Congress earmarked 144 projects worth about $1 billion.  There was a 35 percent decrease in the dollar amount associated with the Labor/HHS bill and a 26 percent decrease in the number of projects.  The Military Construction bill remained more or less at the 200X level.  While Labor/HHS saw a significant reduction in overall projects and the dollar valkue, it is not a 50 percent reduction and Mil Con remains unchanged. 

Here are some outrageous examples of pork that members of the House and Senate added to the Labor/HHS bill:

●          $400,000 for Jazz at Lincoln Center by Sens.Hillary Clinton (D), Chuck Schumer (D), and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D).  That earmark more than doubled in the final appropriations bill, from $150,000 in the House.

●          $500,000 for the Charter School Development Foundation in Las Vegas for the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy by majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Rep. Shelley Berkely (D-Nev.).

●          $250,000 for the Alaska Sealife Center in Seward for a marine ecosystem education program by Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).

●          $400,000 for Guam Community College for skilled craft training by Rep. Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam).

●          $1,000,000 for Bismarck State College for an instrumentation and control training program for the energy industry by Sens. Byron Dorgan (D), Kent Conrad (D), and Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D). 

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