I have been critical of the Bush administration’s efforts on the earmark issue but I have to say the U.S. Office of Management and Budget has made some tremendous progress recently, culminating earlier this week with the unveiling of the updated version of its earmarks database.
The database lists 13,496 earmarks worth more than $19 billion contained in legislation for Fiscal Year 2005. There are no names of sponsoring Members of Congress, but OMB officials have devoted an incredible amount of time in recent months to certifying the recipients and much else about these earmarks.
It is no exaggeration to say this is the most disclosure of federal earmarks data ever.
The database can be searched by agency and by state. Probably the best feature of the database is that you can download it to a spreadsheet format on your PC or laptop and then do your own analyses. That’s what N.Z. Bear did and I know of at least one media organization that is doing the same thing.
The folks at Club for Growth have undertaken to identify the congressional districts of as many of the earmarks as possible. Be cautioned, though, that, as Andy Roth notes, the fact one of his or her constituents is receiving funding under an earmark is not necessarily proof that he or she sponsored the earmark.
President Bushchallenged Congress during his State of the Union address to reduce earmarks by half this year. The OMB earmarks database provides a benchmark from which to measure progress in eliminating earmarks.
Naturally, administration officials are touting their work on earmarks. This is from OMB Director Rob Portman’s official statement:
“’The database establishes a clear and transparent benchmark from which to judge the President’s goal of cutting the number and cost of earmarks by at least half. We will now be working with Congress to achieve this goal,’ said OMB Director Rob Portman.
“’The earmarks database is consistent with the Administration’s overall effort to bring greater transparency to Federal spending in order to encourage and inform the debate over how taxpayers’ money is spent and what they get in return,’ said Portman.
“’It is consistent with recent changes in the House Rules and Senate legislation which require similar disclosure for earmarks. It is also consistent with the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 – the legislation Congress passed and the President supported that requires all Federal grants and contracts to be posted online by January 1, 2008,’ he said.”
I remain perplexed by the administration’s decision to only challenge Congress to get rid of half of the earmarks, and I still think there is a strong political interest within the administration on behalf of preserving the earmarks process.
But for now, OMB deserves credit and praise for getting this earmarks database on the Internet and for continuing their work toimprove and expand the database.
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