Washington, D.C. – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released its preliminary analysis of the House version of the fiscal year (FY) 2012 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act. The bill allocates $30.6 billion for the Department of Energy, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of the Interior, among other agencies; $1 billion below the amount appropriated in FY 2011 and $5.9 billion below the President’s budget request. Unfortunately for taxpayers, the bill contains $436 million for 11 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.

“Because of Congress’s earmark moratorium and the convoluted process by which the FY 2011 continuing resolution was passed, there was no 2011 Congressional Pig Book,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz. “However, the 2012 Pig Book is alive and well. While the House should be praised for reducing spending in the Energy and Water bill, there are earmarks that have been funded anonymously and without accountability.”

“On June 15, 2011, Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) stated, ‘The Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill supports programs critical to our nation’s security, safety, and economic competitiveness.’ For that description to be fully accurate, and for the House Republican leadership to maintain its credibility in the fight for taxpayers and against wasteful spending, all 11 earmarks must be eliminated,” Schatz concluded.

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

• $123,313,000 to the Army Corps of Engineers for Additional Navigation;
• $8,305,000 to the Army Corps of Engineers for a Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal Dispersal Barrier; and $543,000 to the Army Corps of Engineers for Savannah Harbor Expansion.

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