Pork Alert: 2009 Military Construction

Washington, D.C. - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released its preliminary analysis of the Fiscal Year 2009 Military Construction/Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act.  The report included 172 projects worth $1.2 billion, compared to 191 projects worth the same amount in fiscal 2008.  Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) racked up $29.9 million in pork.  House Armed Service Committee Chariman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) led all representatives with three projects totaling $15.1 million. Although the number of earmarks decreased in this most recent edition of the bill, the amount of wasted money has not.

The military construction bill included the following earmarks:

• $30 million by Senate Appropriations Committee member Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) for an access road at Pohakuloa Training Area.  Sen. Inouye requested $17 million for the same project in 2006.
• $27 million by Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) for a fuel system/corrosion control hangar at Yeager Airport.
• $18.4 million by House Military Construction/Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Chet Edwards (D-Texas), including $17.5 million for a chapel and education center at Fort Hood.
• $12.5 million by Representative Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) for the first phase of a medical parking garage at Fort Bliss.
• $3.9 million by Representatives Robert Scott (D-Va.) and Robert Wittman (R-Va.) for a vehicle paint facility at Fort Eustis.

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

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