Earmarks, Contributions, Contracts

By Robert O'Harrow Jr., washingtonpost.com

October 16, 2008

The earmarks continue.

Nevermind the pledges from lawmakers, who said they would curb their taste for congressionally directed spending. New analyses of federal spending show those with juice on Capital Hill still share their love (in the form of big bucks) with companies, charities and others in their districts.

For a look at earmarks included among the defense, homeland security, military construction/VA, and disaster aid bills, check out the database created by Taxpayers For Common Sense.

The Senate winner, with $238.5 million in earmarks: Sen. Ted Stevens.

In the House? It's Rep. John Murtha, with more than $111 million in earmarks.

"As Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) sat today in a federal courthouse while jurors were chosen in the federal trial against him, he received at least one piece of good news: he was the biggest earmark winner in the continuing resolution/mini-bus that was released today, and which has already passed the House. In all, there were 2,321 earmarks worth $6.6 billion," the taxpayer group said in a statement not long ago.

And guess what? Some of those organizations that get earmarks happen to return the favor in kind to lawmakers, in the form of campaign contributions, according to a report by the Sunlight Foundation.

"Three members of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee have received an average of $102,600 in campaign contributions from employees and political action committees of the companies they favored with earmarks in the first six months of 2007. The rest of the members of the subcommittee have netted collectively $180,000‚ an average of about $12,800 per member‚ from the beneficiaries of their earmarks," the group said in its report.