After the Earmark Reform Index came out in 2007, both parties put a moratorium on earmarks starting in 2011, and Congress went without them for a decade. They returned in 2021 under new names: Community Project Funding in the House and Congressionally Directed Spending in the Senate. As of November 2026, House earmarks are capped…
The Office of Management and Budget’s 2007 database of fiscal 2005 earmarks was an early, executive-branch attempt to count congressional pet projects. Congress later stopped earmarking: both chambers adopted a moratorium starting in 2011. The practice came back in 2021 under new names, Community Project Funding in the House and Congressionally Directed Spending in the…
The 2007 war and hurricane supplemental that Citizens Against Government Waste objected to passed the House 218-212 on March 23, 2007. President George W. Bush vetoed that version, H.R. 1591, on May 1 because it set a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. A $120 billion replacement, H.R. 2206, became law on May 25, 2007…
Congress first blocked and then shrank the $30 million “Baby AIDS” early diagnosis grant that Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) had written into the 2006 Ryan White law. In February 2007, a provision in the fiscal 2007 stopgap spending law barred any funds from being used for the program. In November 2007, Coburn’s office said the…
The earmark fights in this 2006 roundup did not end with the PorkBusters campaign. Congress adopted a moratorium on earmarks covering FY2011 through FY2021, and in 2021 the House and Senate brought them back as Community Project Funding and Congressionally Directed Spending, respectively. They now come with caps, public request lists and a ban on…
From the Jacksonville (North Carolina) Daily News:If anyone still believes the changing of the guard in Congress will curtail the annual pork-barrel raids or end the practice of earmarking special expenditures for the home district or state, they should take note of a recent story in The New York Times, ?As Power Shifts in New…
While Liberals have rallied around Jack Murtha for his support for changing the course in Iraq, it appears there is more to Murtha than meets the eye. The New York Times, back in October, reported on a side of Murtha that isn’t quite as visible outside the backrooms of Washington:Outside Washington, Mr. Murtha, a Vietnam…
No charges were ever filed against Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.). He beat Republican challenger Diana Irey 61% to 39% in November 2006 and died in office on February 8, 2010. Weeks later, on February 26, 2010, the House ethics committee cleared him and six other appropriators in its inquiry into the PMA Group. The firm’s…
171 members of Congress who voted against the disclosure of earmarks Porkers of the Month. On September 14, the House voted 245-171 for an internal rule change (H. Res. 1000) that requires all earmarks and their sponsors to be identified in spending, tax, and authorization bills. xxx “This is a serious step toward opening up…
The secret hold did not last. Within weeks of this 2006 post, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) confirmed that he had placed a hold on the bill, and Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) also came forward. The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 2590) then passed both chambers, and President George W. Bush signed it on…
