Pig Book Shows $78 Million Went to Deepwater Replacement Vessel
PIGBOOK
The New London Day
Renée Dudley
Boston University Washington News Service
7 March 2007
WASHINGTON, March 7—A group that opposes government waste listed as pork-barrel spending the nearly $79 million that has been authorized for a Coast Guard patrol boat as a temporary replacement needed because the Coast Guard’s huge new Deepwater fleet modernization program is running well behind schedule.
Citizens Against Government Waste, a non-partisan, non-profit government watch group, released its 2007 Congressional Pig Book Wednesday – as two live pigs ran around the conference room – detailing all pork-barrel spending in the federal budget. The patrol boat was the 22nd-most expensive project on the group’s list of nearly 2,700 pork-barrel spending items.
This year’s pork-barrel spending – which the organization described as appropriations added to legislation, often anonymously, to fund constituent projects that otherwise might not receive government spending – is only half of last year’s reported pork-barrel spending.
But unlike previous annual reports, this year’s was confined to the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security. Appropriations bills for those two departments were the only ones Congress passed last year. Money for all other agencies and programs were included in an omnibus spending bill enacted this year after congressional leaders imposed a moratorium on earmarks.
David Williams, vice president for policy for Citizens Against Government Waste, said the way the money was appropriated for the patrol boat – by being anonymously attached to the Homeland Security Appropriations Act – qualifies it for the Pig Book.
“There is probably a need for the patrol boat, but it made the Pig Book list because management and oversight of Deepwater has been horrendous,” Williams said. “Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin [the joint venture that heads Deepwater] have been running a amok with taxpayer dollars.”
“We’re not opposed to them building the thing; there just needs to be more oversight,” Williams said. “There needs to be a budget request for it to be a legitimate priority.”
Williams said he hopes the new House rules will help to identify who adds earmarks to appropriations bills. The House enacted rules in January requiring members to go on the record to sponsor earmarks. Under the new rules, they are prohibited from trading their votes for spending projects and are required to avow that they have no personal financial stake in their requests.
Citizens Against Government Waste President Tom Schatz said he hopes these changes become permanent, noting that this year’s pork-barrel spending is at its lowest since 1999. “Pork, as Sen. [Tom] Coburn (R-Okla.) says, is the gateway drug to wasteful spending,” Schatz said during the press conference.
Sen. James DeMint (R-S.C.), speaking at the press conference, agreed the reforms need to be made permanent. “It’s like killing a snake,” he said. “We’re not really sure if it’s dead.”
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a long-time advocate of earmark reform, also agreed during his statement at the press conference. “The Republican Party lost the last election because of our failure to control spending,” he said, alluding to the scandal during which former Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-Calif.) pleaded guilty to accepting more than $2 million in bribes.
McCain said he was glad to hear that President Bush announced he wants to cut half of all earmarks, but lamented, “I don’t exactly know how to cut half of them – it’s like saying get rid of half the drug dealers.”
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