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Earmarks reform "a sham"; Congress hides billions in pet projects
Seattle Times special report | A Times investigation of the 2008 defense bill has found 155 hidden earmarks worth $3.5 billion. House members broke the new rules 110 times by not disclosing who was getting the favors. (Sun, 10/12)
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NEW - 12/07/08
Earmark helps businesses, not troops
Seattle Times special report | After being lobbied by companies making a decontamination powder, powerful U.S. senators Charles Schumer, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Arlen Specter forced the military to keep buying what it considers inferior chemical-warfare protection for the troops.
Election 2008 | Where the candidates stand on earmarks
Related
Earmarks: Who gives and who gets
Members of Congress give billions of dollars to contractors through earmarks tacked on to spending bills. The Seattle Times investigated the little-known process and examined the relationships between those who benefit from earmarks and those who make campaign donations to lawmakers.
$4.5 million for a boat that nobody wanted
Washington state focus
Lawmakers play favorites; local Washington merchant loses
Congressional ties bankroll Washington company
Readers respond
- Comment on this project
- 2007 | Should Congress members take campaign donations from people at a company they favored with an earmark?
"The Favor Factory" in the news
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Reaction
The whole ethics bill was a sham...It was written to create loopholes, to get around any transparency and our ability to cut out those earmarks.
— Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.
We need another wave of reform.
— Norm Ornstein, American Enterprise Institute
A database of lawmakers, earmarks, and campaign giving.
