Report: Dramatic drop in earmarks’ number, cost
Well over a year after Congress voluntarily imposed a ban on pork barrel spending, the number and cost of earmarks have dropped dramatically, a report said Tuesday — but the snouts are not out of the trough altogether.
The 2012 database of pork-barrel projects compiled by the nongovernmental group Citizens Against Government Waste, known as the Congressional Pig Book, says Congress has some way to go to cut out wasteful spending.
It finds that the number of earmarks has decreased by 98.3% from 9,129 in fiscal year 2010, when the Pig Book was last produced, to just 152 in fiscal year 2012.
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Earmarks have typically accounted for less than 1% of the budget. But critics say the funding awards do not undergo the same scrutiny as other spending and tend to reflect the influence individual lawmakers wield in Congress, rather than merit.
While some lawmakers have called for legislation to be passed to turn the moratorium into a permanent ban on earmarks, others oppose that step.
The report names Inouye; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada; Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Thad Cochran, R-Mississippi; and Senate appropriator Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, as among those critical of the continuation of the moratorium.
CNN
4/17/12
Magnolia Tribune
