Chipping Away at Taxpayers
January 3, 2008
by: Leslie K. Paige

Government WasteWatch, Winter 2007

Citizens Against Government Waste is teed off at Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.). In fact, he was the recipient of our November "Porker of the Month" award for airdropping a $3 million earmark for the First Tee golf program into the fiscal 2008 Department of Defense Appropriations Act conference report, which became law on November 13, 2007.

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 this pork-happy Congress initially rejected Rep. Clyburn’s earmark. According to a November 10 McClatchy Newspapers report, “Clyburn said…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. First Tee has received $7.5 million in earmarks since 2003, including $1 million from the Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Education and its Character Education Program, added in conference and another $2 million from the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice Programs’ Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).

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.” An earmark for golf isn’t surprising given Rep. Clyburn’s zeal for the sport. 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.

In a November 14 statement, Clyburn complained about the “wrongs” done to our troops by the Bush administration, alleging that the troops are not “fully equipped and trained for battle.” One wonders if Rep. Clyburn would have been more willing to spend that $3 million on the troops if the money had gone to purchase golf clubs for them.