Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) gets a selfie with Faye. (CQ Roll Call)
Earlier today, at a Capitol
Hill press conference, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW)
announced the discovery of 123 earmarks costing taxpayers $5.1 billion
in H.R. 2029, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, the omnibus
spending bill funding the federal government for fiscal year (FY) 2016.
This marks the fourth time that members of Congress have
violated the earmark moratorium adopted in FY 2011 in order to waste
vital taxpayer dollars on parochial and non-essential pet projects.
In the current fiscal year, the number of earmarks has increased by 17 percent over FY 2015, and their total cost has jumped by 21 percent. While
this year's $5.1 billion cost remains far below the record of $29
billion set 10 years ago, it represents one-third of the $15.3 billion
in earmarks identified by CAGW since the moratorium took effect.
In short, the 2016 Congressional Pig Book reveals that earmarks are once again on the rise, and this time with very little transparency.
Among the egregious examples of pork-barrel waste highlighted in the 2016 Pig Book are $8 million for an aquatic plant control program, double the $4 million earmarked in FY 2015; another $40 million to upgrade the M1 Abrams tank, an effort opposed by the Pentagon; and an additional $5.9 million
for the East-West Center in Hawaii, a program so deserving of
extinction that the State Department has attempted to eliminate it for
years.
CAGW
was joined at the press conference by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Jeff
Flake (R-Ariz.), and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Reps. Bill Flores
(R-Texas) and Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.). Also in attendance were CAGW’s
mascot, "Pig Foot," along with our live porcine pal, Faye.The 2016 Pig Book has already been featured in news stories nationwide, including on CBS News, FOX News Channel's "America's Newsroom," The Daily Caller, and RollCall.com.
Read the Pig Book Summary and search the Pork Database of all 123 projects.
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