Washington, D.C. – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released a preliminary analysis of H.R. 2764 – State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2008 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008), better known as the omnibus appropriations bill.  The 3,400 page bill contains $533 worth of spending directives for 11 different apporporaitions bill. 

“” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.  “

After scrubbing the bill, it appears that there 11,043 projects for $14.1 billion in the omnibus.  In terms of numbers of earmarks, the omnibus is the second largest number of earmarks containe din the bill The omnibus bill contains 9,170 projects, according to Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) office, resulting in a total of 11,400 projects for all 12 appropriations bills, including defense.  Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-S.C.) office estimates that total earmarks will cost $18.2 billion, meaning the omnibus bill alone contains more than $12 billion.  Members of Congress took full advantage of the conference meetings to add their own pork.  In the Homeland Security Appropriations Act, CAGW found 131 projects worth $268,780,701.  Of that amount, 112 projects, or 85.5 percent, and $114,765,021, or 42.7 percent of the total dollars were added in conference.  Many projects were for members of the House Appropriations Committee for a competitive grant program within the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  The following chart compares three of the bills to the last year that bill included earmarks (figures compiled from CAGW’s Congressional Pig Book).

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