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Tuesday, July 08, 2008
OMB Releases FY 2008 Earmarks Data
OMB has released additional data on federal earmarks contained in the FY 2008 appropriations bills yesterday. The data is available at www.earmarks.gov. I have to continue to applaud OMB for publishing information online about federal spending in this earmark database. They have continued to improve the interface of the earmarks database and list earmark by agency, by state, and they now provide a summary of earmarks totaled up by appropriations subcommittee - a great addition. You can also do a keyword search across all the data they post. One feature I'd love to see added is a summary or way to total earmarks data by sponsor. In order to see who requested or sponsored an earmark, you currently have to drill down a long way in the database - sometimes four or five levels. Adding up the total amounts of earmarks secured by legislator - or by the president - would go a long way to improving accountability for federal spending.
While OMB has done a good job making this kind of data accessible and understandable, we could know a lot more if better data was required to be made public. More importantly, it would be significantly easier to hold our elected leaders accountable if the information was available before debate and voting on appropriations bills took place in Congress. That's what would be required if a provision originally sponsored by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) would be adopted by Congress. DeMint's provision was originally included in a reform package passed by the Senate in early 2007, but it was later dropped in conference.
It's almost assured Congress will not adopt anything like the DeMint amendment this year, but I'm hopeful when the 111th Congress begins in January, better reforms will be adopted that allow the public to weigh in on spending proposals before Congress passes them.
Posted by Adam Hughes
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