Pork Alert: 2009 Homeland Security

Business Wire, Oct 9, 2008

CAGW's Pork Patrol(SM) Takes a Closer Look at Fiscal 2009 Homeland Security Pork

WASHINGTON -- Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released its preliminary analysis of the Fiscal Year 2009 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Appropriations Act. There were 118 projects in this year's DHS appropriations bill, totaling $286 million, both down less than 1 percent from 124 projects costing $294 million in last year's bill. The amount of taxpayers' money wasted on Homeland Security pork has continued its decline over the past two years from its peak in fiscal year 2007 at $2.4 billion. Nonetheless, every dollar spent on earmarks adversely affects the internal security of the nation. Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) led the way with $49.3 million in pork, followed closely by Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) with $43.3 million.

Earmarks added by the House and Senate to the Homeland Security Appropriations Act included:

* $39.7 million by Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), for the Advanced Training Center, which trains border agents, despite the fact that the Bush Administration has not requested funding to expand the center.

* $27 million by Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee member Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) for the Southeast Region Research Initiative in Tennessee. To date, this organization has not published any reports on its website.

* $23 Million for the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and the National Center for Biomedical Research and Training, Louisiana State University, by seven senators.

* $24.9 million for 51 projects for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Predisaster Mitigation by 56 House members, spread among 26 states, including towns such as Rainbow City, Alabama (population 8,428), and Taylorsville, Kentucky (population 1,208).

* $22.1 million for 33 projects for FEMA State and Local Programs by 35 members, spread among 19 states, including towns such as Poynette, Wisconsin (population 2,520), and Bellerose, New York (population 1,120).

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.