The House on Wednesday passed a $410 billion omnibus spending bill packed with pet projects requested by Democrats and Republicans alike. The 245-to-178 vote came just a week after President Obama signed one of the largest spending bills in the nation’s history, a $787 billion measure meant to rejuvenate a sluggish economy. The new bill, a reflection of Democratic priorities, increases spending on domestic programs by an average of 8 percent in the current fiscal year, which began in October. On Thursday, Mr. Obama is scheduled to send his budget for the next fiscal year to Congress. He did not take a formal position on the bill passed by the House. “It’s a big document,” a White House official said. “We are still reviewing it.” Republicans, however, did not mince words in describing the spending bill as wasteful. And one watchdog group said the bill provided nearly $8 billion for more than 8,500 pet projects favored by lawmakers, including $1.7 million for a honey bee laboratory in Weslaco, Tex.; $346,000 for research on apple fire blight in Michigan and New York; and $1.5 million for work on grapes and grape products, including wine. Representative John Fleming, Republican of Louisiana, said Mr. Obama’s call for fiscal responsibility, in a speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, was “sandwiched between two wasteful spending bills.” Representative Mark Steven Kirk, Republican of Illinois, pointed out that the new bill came just two days after the White House held a forum to promote fiscal restraint.

If I believed Obama at his word, I expect the bill to be sent back to Congress with the reply: “Clean it up”. Will that happen? If it doesn’t, then I will feel that once again, politicians cannot be trusted, deal only in rhetoric and are only interested in their own personal agendas. Those teary eyed faces on election night – they have been duped as I have. The only difference is that perhaps I recognize it, while they will be in denial for 4 or 8 years….whatever will become of the US? I fear deeply for our children and grandchildren, more so than ever in my life.

Examples of lawmakers who have sponsored earmarks for private companies and received campaign contributions from them and, in some cases, their lobbyists.

Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio
Hobson, a member of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, obtained a $2.4 million earmark last year for the Greentree Group of Beavercreek, Ohio, for a digital information sharing system. Greentree Group executives, their families and consultants have donated $43,350 to Hobson since 2000, reports The Columbus Dispatch.

Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind.
Visclosky, a member of House defense appropriations subcommittee, sponsored a $2 million earmark to 21st Century Systems last year for a virtual fence demonstration project. 21st Century has opened offices in Visclosky’s district. Its executives have contributed more than $27,000 to Visclosky in 2007-2008. The company’s Washington lobbyist is the PMA Group, a major appropriations lobbying shop whose associates have his campaign more than $45,000 in 2007-2008. The Indianapolis Star reported that Visclosky also helped Applied Global Technologies obtain a $2 million earmark for video teletraining for the military. Three Applied Global Technologies executives, including Executive Vice President Mike Garvey, each gave Visclosky a maximum $2,300 contribution.

Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan.
Tiahrt co-sponsored an $8.3 million earmark for Marine Corps UC-12 replacement aircraft built by Hawker Beechcraft Corp. in Wichita. Company executives have contributed $11,750 to Tiahrt this election cycle.

Reps. Rob Andrews, D-N.J., and Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J.
Since 2003, Andrews — and in some cases LoBiondo — sponsored $24.4 million in federal contracts to Gestalt LLC for work on speedy analyses of ships spotted at sea and teaching robots to work together. Executives of Gestalt contributed more than $14,000 to Andrews since 2002, and $2,500 to LoBiondo. Employees from Gestalt’s lobbying firm, American Defense International, delivered another $11,000 to Andrews and $5,750 to LoBiondo, reports the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill, N.J.

Rep. Tim Holden, D-Pa.
Holden earmarked $3.2 million to Reading-based Fidelity Technologies for the Call for Fire Trainer, a training simulator to help “forward observers” conduct calls for fire missions. The family of its founder, Jack Gulati, has contributed $10,000-plus to Holden’s re-election campaigns over the past six years. Employees of Fidelity’s lobbying firm, PMA Group, have donated $63,225 to Holden campaigns since 2002, the Allentown Morning Call reports.

Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa.
Murphy provided a $1.6 million defense bill earmark to EDO Corp. for “smart rack” weapons release systems that let fighter pilots fire various weapons or drop bombs at separate times. EDO’s political action committee gave Murphy $10,000, the Bucks County Courier Times reports. EDO also hired the PMA Group as its lobbying firm. PMA lobbyists and their spouses have given generously to Murphy, with contributions in the current election cycle totaling $18,500.

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif.
Miller delivered a $1.6 million for SecuriMetrics Inc., which manufactures biometric identification devices that use iris, fingerprint and facial recognition technology. Employees of SecuriMetrics Inc. have donated $16,090 to Miller and his political action committee since 2004, the Contra Costa Times reports.

Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga.
He won a $1.6 million earmark last year for Engineering and Software Systems Solutions Inc. for advanced coating technologies. Kingston has received more than $20,000 in campaign contributions this election cycle from company executives and their wives.

Source: The Associated Press

More than 11,000 “earmarks,” worth nearly $15 billion in all, were slipped into legislation telling the government where to spend taxpayers’ money this year, keeping the issue at the center of Washington’s culture of money, influence and politics. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said lawmakers could not possibly know what they were approving in the hastily completed spending bill, packed with “unnecessary, wasteful, run-of-the-mill pork barrel projects” amounting to “a slush fund for the appropriators.” In a lengthy statement submitted for the Congressional Record this week, McCain warned: “It will be a long time before all of the hidden provisions in this legislation are exposed.”

Congress has asked the Justice Department to investigate Alaska GOP Rep. Don Young’s $10 million earmark for a Florida highway interchange sought by a developer who gave him campaign contributions. Former Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., is embroiled in an investigation of earmarks for clients of lobbyist Bill Lowery, a former GOP congressman, who also have been generous campaign donors to Lewis. Once limited to the most senior and powerful lawmakers, or those on the Appropriations and Transportation committees, earmarking pet projects and grants mushroomed after Republicans took over Congress in 1995.

Estimates vary, but earmarks went from more than 1,300 projects worth nearly $8 billion in 1994 to a peak of nearly 14,000 projects worth more than $27 billion in 2005, according Citizens Against Government Waste, a watchdog group that opposes the practice.

Rep. Jim Walsh, R-N.Y., contrasts today’s earmarking culture to what existed before that. Most of the pet projects went to a small clique of spending barons headed by Appropriations chairmen like the late Rep. Jamie Whitten, D-Miss., who used to call up Cabinet officials to order up earmarks.

“We democratized it,” Walsh said. “We basically said, ‘We’re going to make this available to all the members.’”

But demand for earmarks skyrocketed, and more and more lobbying firms sought to buy in.

Democrats say they are cutting earmarks by more than 40 percent below the 2006 budget bills passed when Republicans ran Congress. As important, they say, are House and Senate reforms requiring sponsors of earmarks to disclose them. That’s made it easier for watchdog groups, reporters and the public to track the flow of lobbying influence and money. A Web site run by Taxpayers for Common Sense details earmarks, and one run by the Center for Responsive Politics tracks lobby registrations and campaign contributions.

Things may be changing. This year, freshman Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., gave back about $14,000 in contributions from people who had requested earmarks. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, told the AP that starting next year he’s going to stop asking for earmarks benefiting private companies. Few, however, expect the pay-to-play system to shut down.

“Hiring a lobbyist to try to get you an earmark is a pretty good investment, because you can get a 10-, 20-, 30-fold return without frankly all that much work,” said Anthony Nownes, a political scientist at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. “It’s a such a win-win situation for everybody. The legislator gets to tell his or her constituent that he or she quite literally brought home the bacon, the lobbyist gets to tell his or her client that they did the same thing, and the constituents get all the goodies.”