In an emergency supplemental appropriations bill designed to provide $92 billion for the war on terror and hurricane relief, Mississippi Senators Trent Lott (R) and Thad Cochran (R) added $700 million to relocate newly repaired railroad tracks. The costly pork barrel project has been jammed into an already bloated bill which currently sits at $106.5 billion, or $14.5 billion above the $92 billion version passed by the House last month, which met the President’s request.
Iowa Nonprofit is Latest Earmark Outrage
The Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium (CIETC) is a nonprofit organization that provides job-training services for the Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) program. As extensively reported by The Des Moines Register, the group’s top three executives were recently fired after a state audit found that they collected a combined $1.8 million in salaries over 30 months. Congressional earmarks and breakdown of oversight allowed a cadre of greedy schemers to enrich themselves at taxpayer expense.
Taxpayers Get Charged Overtime
In March 2005, The Record revealed that more than 100 retired police officers with the New York Port Authority (PA) are getting at least $100,000 a year in pensions. Because many senior PA cops were logging long hours of overtime, and because overtime is included in pension calculations, retirees are receiving up to double the pay they made in a normal working year. At least 25 other PA retirees are getting pensions in excess of $100,000 as well.
The CVC – Not a Capitol Idea
With 580,000 square feet, three underground stories, and space three-quarters the size of the Capitol itself, the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) is a monument to Congress’s own excess. It was recently announced that the project is experiencing yet another cost increase and construction delay. On February 15, an official from the Government Accountability Office testified […]
Congress Not Seeing Drug War Waste
The White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) was established in 1988 to develop and coordinate policies and objectives to decrease illegal drug use, manufacturing, trafficking, drug-related crime and violence, and drug-related health consequences in the United States. In May 2005, CAGW released Up in Smoke: ONDCP’s Wasted Efforts in the War on […]
Mrs. Bush, too, Loves the Earmarks
It’s funny how sometimes we just disregard the Constitution and the specific powers it gives to each branch of the federal government. I learned as well as many others in the ninth grade that the power of the purse is given to the Congress, so the citizens have some influence and comments on how their tax dollars were going to be spent. Funny how that never really worked out since there are so many projects funded through earmarks.
Government Credit Cards and Hurricane Katrina
The damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina left no question that taxpayers would be paying a hefty bill for rescue and reconstruction. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, more than $39 million of that bill was paid for by federal employees with government credit cards. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) will soon release the first comprehensive audit of Katrina-related emergency expenditures. A December 27, 2005 Associated Press article provided a glimpse at what the report might include; namely, charges that were excessive or used for purposes other than Katrina relief.