LegiStorm has already unsettled Washington by publishing congressional staffer salaries, personal financial disclosures and travel information. Now they have launched a free searchable database to track the much-maligned legislative earmarks.
Earmarks are federal dollars that members of Congress direct to specific purposes or entities as part of broader spending bills, often to benefit the congressman’s home district. Earmarks totaled more than $18.3 billion in 2008 and a significant portion of the lobbying industry in Washington is devoted to securing earmarks for special interest groups.
While criticism of earmarks has intensified in recent years with an increased volume of earmarking, there still is support for the earmark system. Supporters point out that the amount spent on earmarks is a tiny fraction of the overall budget and that lawmakers are merely trying to meet the unique needs of their district.
Criticism of the earmark system has led lawmakers to provide more openness to the earmarking process, including the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 which requires disclosure of all earmarks, including which members sponsored the provisions. LegiStorm aims to take this information and provide even greater transparency to the system by making it easily searchable.
LegiStorm’s earmark database tells us that Virginia received the largest total amount of earmark money in 2008 at over $2.6 billion. The most prolific earmarker is Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) who sponsored or cosponsored over $1.5 billion in earmarks.
Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS) was the sole sponsor of 154 earmarks, narrowly beating out the most famous user of the earmark process, Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) who was the sole sponsor of 144 earmarks. Stevens earned the nickname “Uncle Ted” because he was so good at steering money back to Alaska. Though defeated in his 2008 reelection bid, the narrow margin despite his conviction on federal criminal charges proves just how important earmarks have become to legislator’s relationship with constituents.
The most expensive earmark was $588 million for submarine procurement. The organizations receiving the largest amount of money are the National Drug Intelligence Center, followed closely by Northrup Grumman and the University of Southern Alabama. Each received more than $30 million.
At the other end of the spectrum, it is interesting to see who doesn’t benefit from earmarks. Of the states, Delaware received the least amount of earmark money. Four senators and 9 representatives sponsored no earmarks at all in 2008. They were Senators Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Jim DeMint (R-SC), and John McCain (R-AZ); Representatives John Boehner (R-OH), Eric Cantor (R-VA), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Vito Fossella (R-NY), Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), John Kline (R-MN), John Shadeqq (R-AZ), Lee Terry (R-NE), and Paul Broun (R-GA).
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