Going for the low hanging fruit first (earmarks in EarmarkWatch.org). So let’s look at the $141,000 that the Alabama School of Math and Science in Mobile, Ala., got in the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Act.
The school–a public, residential school for sophomores through seniors who are gifted in science and math–employed Capitol […]

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I’m still looking mostly at the earmarks that Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., has sponsored, but while I was looking at them, I came across the official biography that Rep. Robert B. Aderholt, another Alabama Republican, has on his Web site. The language is instructive:
Congressman Aderholt serves on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, as a member […]

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Let’s start with this earmark, because it’s already in EarmarkWatch.org, and hence easy to research. A few interesting notes…
Providence Hospital is the beneficiary of the earmark (the final amount of the Earmark was $1.2 million, not the $1.5 million that EarmarkWatch, which draws on older data, shows). One of their two lobbying firms is Cassidy […]

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Last week, our friends in the Porkbusting movement expressed their dismay that the Republican House leadership chose Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., over Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., for an open slot on the House Appropriations Committee.
I thought I’d do a little open research on Bonner’s fiscal year 2008 earmarks, a complete list of which can be […]

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Transportation’s Inspector General has launched an investigation of the Transportation Technology Innovation and Demonstration program–at the request of a pair of members of Congress, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y.–to determine whether the program, as administered by the Federal Highway Administration, fulfilled the goals set for it by Congress and whether FHWA […]

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After it hired a lobbyist and its employees’ contributed to a member of Congress’ leadership political action committee, a Kentucky company saw its defense business quadruple thanks to earmarks.
Over the last three years, Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., says he has earmarked at least $10.4 million in defense funds for Phoenix Products, Inc., a small […]

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Three members of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee have received an average of $102,600 in campaign contributions from employees and political action committees of the companies they’ve favored with earmarks in the first six months of 2007. The rest of the members of the subcommittee have netted collectively $180,000—an average of about $12,800 per member—from […]

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Via the invaluable blog devoted to developments in federal government ethics, the IEC Journal, I came across this Web course for federal workers on the issues raised by working with government contractors:
Increasingly, private sector contractor employees are being used to accomplish the business of Government. This trend shows no signs of slowing down. These contractor […]

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This article in the Washington Post yesterday on the earmarking process cites letters sent to the Department of Energy written by members of Congress including Rep. Rahm Emanuel in support of projects at the Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago and the Illinois Institute of technology.
We recently received the correspondence logs from […]

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I’m going through the version of the bill N.Z. posted, and came across this language on page 68:
(2) that the information in clause (1) has been available on a publicly accessible congressional website in a searchable format at least 48 hours before such vote.
Clause 1 requires all congressionally directed spending in bills — earmarks, tax […]

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