Three paragraphs jumped out at me from the final chapter of Robert G. Kaiser's excellent Washington Post series, Citizen K Street:
Cassidy helped change Washington by shaping the culture of congressional earmarks that became so important in the last dozen years. Earmarks directly transfer the government's money to particular institutions and interests. He and his original partner helped invent the idea of lobbying for earmarked appropriations -- an idea that made Cassidy rich and fed a system of interdependence between lobbyists and Congress that thrives today.
And, later in the piece...
Cassidy and his original partner, Kenneth Schlossberg, demonstrated ...Continue reading
CONTINUING WITH SOME OTHER EARMARKS
CONTINUING WITH SOME OTHER EARMARKS in the OMB database, the Department of Justice gave $740,000 to Mistral Security Inc, for continuing a drug identification program. This grant was to expand an aerosol drug detection technology that is already being tested in schools as a pilot run. The aerosol sprays can be used to detect the residue that illegal drugs leave when they've touched a surface; the company provides an independent audit of the program's results here.
According to the Mistral Group website, the aerosol applications that are being developed by schools all serve as a deterrent to ...
Continue readingDelving into OMB’s Earmark Data
After fooling around with it for the last half-day or so, I feel confident I can pronounce the new OMB earmark database a great tool and a success for OMB, and I can't wait for the updates going forward.
One thing I wanted to try was to see if one can match companies that get earmarks with members of Congress through campaign contributions. For example, DSD Laboratories got a few 2005 earmarks (see here and here and here and here ). A check of the Senate Office of Public Records site shows that the firm hasn't reported or hired ...
Continue readingA day at the earmark races
I'M TOO EASILY DISTRACTED by eamarks. Since the Office of Management and Budget posted its earmark database, I've found it hard to concentrate on the 1990 portion of the SF-LLL timeline (which is mostly written but still needs a lot of links). Instead, I keep looking up things like this:
Virginia Equine Center Foundation / Virginia Horse Center Foundation1 recipient will receive $992,000. This is a first-time earmark.
Description: The earmark funds were used to provide a USDA Rural Development Community Facilities grant of $992,000 to the Virginia Equine Center Foundation. It was used to construct ...
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OMB Earmark Database is Live
Here it is. OMB says, in a press release, that...
When the earmarks database was first launched on March 12, 2007, it provided aggregate data on the number and cost of earmarks for FY2005 appropriations, and was able to show this information by agency, office and account. Today's update includes details on individual earmarks, the ability to view earmarks by State and a downloadable file so that the public can sort information in ways they find useful. However, the database is not designed, and cannot accurately be used, to identify the individual sponsors of congressional earmarks. Additionally, the recipient of an earmark identified in the database may not in all cases represent the ultimate beneficiary of the earmark.Continue reading
OMB to Release Full Earmark Database
When we last heard from the Office of Management and Budget, Chief of Staff Rob Lehman told us they were working away at their earmarks database, which they fully intended to fully release--complete with information on all of the 13,000-some individual earmarks--as soon as it was done. (It had been scheduled to go up March 12, which turned out to be a little optimistic.) Well, from what we just learned from Lehman and some of his colleagues at OMB, "as soon as it's done" will be tomorrow afternoon. When it goes online, it will be here. OMB deserves credit for doing this. Visitors will be able to search the Web site by state, by agency, or download the data into spread sheets or mash it up on maps.
Continue readingAnother Earmark List–Congressional Web Site Study Update
Add Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas to the list of members who publish information on their earmark requests. That brings the grand total to six, which isn't exactly overwhelming. Brady's list is here; he also says this about earmarks:
Sometimes, when out-of-touch bureaucrats think they know better than local communities, the only recourse left is to direct the federal government to act. Unfortunately, these “earmarks” have exploded in number and cost over the years. Some are snuck into bills without public scrutiny, others are plain outrageous to taxpayers, especially with America’s large budget deficit. Continue reading
Follow Up with OMB: Earmarks Database Work is Proceeding
Here's a (now longish) quick follow up on a post I wrote on Monday about a conversation I'd had with Rob Lehman, chief of staff of the Office of Management and Budget, about their efforts to get an online database of individual earmarks up on March 12 (they fell a little short, and were only able to post summary data). Yesterday, I called Lehman back to ask him how things were going, and to see if I could get a few more useful details about OMB's effort. Here's a brief summary of what I learned:
Continue readingMore on Tax Earmarks and Reform Loopholes
Yesterday the Washington Post reported on 520 tax earmarks that were inserted into a bill that passed the Congress on the last day they were in session. I posited that the inclusion of these tax earmarks without a list of members who requested them was in violation of the earmark reform rule that passed the House back in September. It appears that this was not in violation because many of the tax earmarks were proposed as separate bills earlier in the session and were wrapped up into the final bill. Thanks to Bill Allison I was able to track these bills down.
Continue readingTax Break Earmarks Continue
What, you thought that Congress had really frozen out all of its earmarks? The Washington Post reports today that one of the final acts of the 109th Congress was to pass a tax bill -- the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 -- that included 520 import tariff breaks for select companies. The Post notes, “Corporate lobbyists often craft such suspensions to apply to just one product imported by just one company. Many of those companies and their executives have given millions of dollars to political campaigns.” Of course none of these companies are identified nor do we know who inserted these tax earmarks into the tax bill. All that we have is a very long (and sometimes silly) list that details precisely which items are to be free of import tariffs.
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