Politics

Fewer, But Costlier Earmarks in 2010

By Sunlight Foundation & Participatory Politics Foundation

Taxpayers for Common Sense has completed their analysis of congressional earmarking for fiscal year 2010 and found that, while Congress approved almost 2,000 fewer earmarks this year, the total cost of all earmarks actually increased from $15.6 billion in 2009 to $15.9 billion this year. You can read TCS’s full report here (.pdf).

The report includes information on the top earmark winners in both chambers for FY ’10.

These are the top earmarkers in the Senate for 2010:

And these are top earmakers in the House in 2010 (Note: unlike the Senate numbers, these do not include jointly sponsored earmarks. TCS says, “there are too many instances where a House member?s joint earmark number is almost entirely the result of a strong in?state Senator.”):

Full post as published by Open Congress on February 17, 2010 (boomark / email).