For Immediate Release                                    Contact:  Leslie K. Paige 202-467-5334
December 17, 2007                                                      Alexa Moutevelis 202-467-5318 

Pork Alert on the Omnibus

Washington, D.C. Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released a preliminary analysis of H.R. 2764 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2008 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008), better known as the omnibus appropriations bill.  In perhaps its most irresponsible move yet, the Democratic House leadership made the more than 3,400 page bill available in the wee hours of morning on Monday and scheduled House floor debate for 6:00 p.m. the same day, leaving less than 24 hours for members of Congress and taxpayers to skim the bill and determine what is in and what is out. 

“It is business as usual,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.  “The Democratic leadership failed to keep its promise to cut earmarks by 50 percent.”

The omnibus bill contains 9,170 projects, according to Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) office, resulting in a total of 11,400 projects for all 12 appropriations bills, including defense.  Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-S.C.) office estimates that total earmarks will cost $18.2 billion, meaning the omnibus bill alone contains more than $12 billion.  Members of Congress took full advantage of the conference meetings to add their own pork.  In the Homeland Security Appropriations Act, CAGW found 131 projects worth $268,780,701.  Of that amount, 112 projects, or 85.5 percent, and $114,765,021, or 42.7 percent of the total dollars were added in conference.  Many projects were for members of the House Appropriations Committee for a competitive grant program within the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  The following chart compares three of the bills to the last year that bill included earmarks (figures compiled from CAGW’s Congressional Pig Book).

###