Pork Alert Roundup
September 30, 2009
by: Sean Kennedy

Government WasteWatch, Fall 2009

Each year, as residents of the nation’s capital swelter in the late-summer heat, Congress undertakes its annual rite of spending:  the release of the House and Senate Appropriations Committee bills and their accompanying reports.  The legislation offers a preliminary glimpse of what might ultimately be found in the 12 annual appropriations bills that are voted on and signed into law, which eventually become the source of the Citizens Against Government Waste’s (CAGW) Congressional Pig Book.

Each chamber votes on its own version of each bill and report, which include funding amounts for agency programs and pork-barrel earmarks.  A final agreement is then hammered out between the House and Senate in conference committees.  Both the House and Senate have to vote on the conference report in order to approve identical language for the 12 bills.

Unfortunately for taxpayers, when there are discrepancies between the House and Senate versions, Congress usually takes the route of least resistance, merging the two lists of earmarks and even adding to them in the conference committees.  As this process unfolds each year, CAGW highlights the contents of each committee report with a series of Pork Alerts.

The Pork Alerts for the fiscal year (FY) 2010 appropriations bills show that seven of the 10 bills tracked had a drop in pork-barrel spending from FY 2009.  While none meet the 50 percent reduction promised by the Democratic leadership, the figures are still significant.  However, nothing is final until the conference committees issue their reports, so much more remains to be done.

The largest decrease was a 42.2 percent drop in the House version of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, which went from $618.8 million in FY 2009 to $357.4 million in FY 2010.  Next, there was a 42 percent decrease in the House Financial Services Appropriations Act, which dropped from $57 million in FY 2009 to $33 million in FY 2010; followed by a 36.5 percent decrease in the House version of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which decreased from $621.3 million in FY 2009 to $394.8 million in FY 2010.

The bill that had the largest increase in earmark spending was the Senate version of the Department of Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Appropriations Act, which jumped 46.7 percent, from $906.2 million in FY 2009 to $1.7 billion in FY 2010.  The Senate version of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act rose by 32 percent, from $167.2 million in FY 2009 to $220.7 million in FY 2010.  The House version of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act went up 15.6 percent, from $134.9 million in FY 2009 to $156 million in FY 2010.

In several cases, leadership had its privileges, as top-ranking subcommittee and committee members took home significant amounts of the earmarks.  Senate Interior and Environment Subcommittee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein had $58 million for 30 projects and Subcommittee Ranking Member Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) has $3 million for 11 projects, a combined total of $61 million, or 30.6 percent of the $199.1 million in the bill.  Senate Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) had nine projects worth $4.3 million, and Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) had eight projects worth $4.1 million, a total of $8.4 million or 26.4 percent of the $31.9 million in the bill.

As Congress moves forward with the appropriations bills, CAGW will continue to track them in order to determine if these trends apply to the final versions.