Washington, D.C. – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released its preliminary analysis of the House version of the fiscal year (FY) 2012 Agriculture Appropriations Act.  The bill allocates $125.5 billion for the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, among other agencies; $7 billion below the President’s budget request.  This total of $125.5 billion reflects a $2.7 billion reduction in discretionary spending and a $3 billion increase in mandatory funding from FY 2011.  Unfortunately for taxpayers, the bill contains $742,000 for 12 earmarks that either were not requested by the President, represent a substantial increase over the budget request, and/or were only added by the House, thus meeting CAGW’s long-established earmark criteria. 

Agriculture Subcommittee Chairman Jack Kingston commented on the bill, stating: “Our members have worked to root out waste and duplication and, where they have strayed from their core mission, we rein in agencies so they may better focus on the responsibilities for which they are intended.”  These efforts toward fiscal responsibility have failed to do our taxpayer dollars justice, seeing as the recently released FY 2012 bill is riddled with earmarks. 

The following are some of the most outrageous examples of pork that members of the House added to the Agriculture bill:

• $40,000 to Agriculture Credit Programs for Boll Weevil Eradication
• $4,000 to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture Research and Education Activities for Animal Health and Disease Research
• $2,450 to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture Research and Education Activities for McIntire-Stennis, Cooperative Forestry Formula Funds

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