LegiStorm Releases Congressional Earmarks Database On The Web

LegiStorm, the Web site that has unsettled Washington's power players by publishing congressional staffer salaries and personal financial disclosures, has now launched a free searchable database to track the explosive growth of legislative earmarks. The earmarks build on other data on the LegiStorm site so users can find important connections between otherwise unconnected facts, such as between earmarks and the corporate-sponsored travel or personal financial holdings of members of Congress and their staff.

Washington, DC (Issues Wire / PRWEB) November 19, 2008 -- LegiStorm, the Web site that has unsettled Washington's power players by publishing congressional staffer salaries and personal financial disclosures, has now launched a free searchable database to track the explosive growth of legislative earmarks.

The earmarks database builds on other LegiStorm data so users can find important connections between otherwise unconnected facts, such as between earmarks and the corporate-sponsored travel or personal financial holdings of members of Congress and their staff.

LegiStorm is proud to integrate earmarks data with our other data sets in order to bring deeper insight and increased transparency to congressional and executive spending.

"Earmarks have been at the center of several congressional scandals in the past few years, and openness in the process can help combat potential abuses of the earmark system," said Jock Friedly, a former Capitol Hill investigative reporter who is the founder and president of LegiStorm. "LegiStorm is proud to integrate earmarks data with our other data sets in order to bring deeper insight and increased transparency to congressional and executive spending."

LegiStorm's new data were provided by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a group that tracks earmarks in detail. LegiStorm's database enables the public to track which organizations have benefited from these earmarks, and where exactly the taxpayers' money has been directed.

Earmarks are federal dollars that members of Congress direct to specific purposes or entities as part of broader spending bills. These "earmarks" are often directed back to the sponsoring congressman's home district. Earmarks totaled more than $18.3 billion in 2008 alone, and a significant portion of the lobbying industry in Washington is devoted to securing earmarks for clients.

Supporters of earmarks say that lawmakers are more accountable to their constituents than the federal bureaucracy and are in a unique position to know what their districts need. They point out that even sometimes-controversial earmarks are ones that are popular with local constituents and are of proven value. Furthermore, they note that the amount spent on earmarks is a tiny fraction of the overall federal budget.

But criticism of earmarks has intensified as the volume of earmarking has grown. Critics point to the fact that most earmarked funds are directed and allocated without going through the competitive bidding process otherwise required for other government funding. Recent Washington scandals have involved allegations of influence-peddling and even bribery surrounding designation of earmarks.

Such criticisms have led lawmakers to provide more openness to the earmarking process, including the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 which requires disclosure of all earmarks, including which members of Congress sponsored the provisions. This disclosure has allowed LegiStorm to launch its earmarks database with data from fiscal year 2008 generously provided by the Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Combined with other information provided on LegiStorm's site, the earmarks resource provides citizens, journalists and watchdogs the opportunity to discover connections that might otherwise go unnoticed. For example, in 2008 Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) sponsored two defense earmarks worth $2.4 million for Science Applications International Corp. LegiStorm's trips database shows SAIC also helped pay for Mollohan, his wife and two staffers to travel to Spain in 2004. That widely publicized trip has come under scrutiny from watchdogs and the House ethics committee.

Congress's requested earmarks in 2008 ranged from $1,000 assigned for an experimental project at Estelline Springs in Texas, to $588 million toward accelerating the purchase of a submarine. There was an earmark for $1.87 million in funding for the Center for Grape Genetics in Geneva, N.Y., as well as $3.72 million earmarked to study the eradication of Formosan subterranean termites.

The debate about earmarks spilled into the presidential campaign in 2008. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) emphasized that he was one of the few legislators who has renounced all earmarks. His running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska), had won plaudits by saying she had rejected the now-infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" earmark but then was criticized when it surfaced that she had supported the earmark while campaigning for governor.

The most prolific member of Congress was Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who co-sponsored 339 earmarks, although he did not sponsor a single earmark by himself. Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) was the sole sponsor for 154 earmarks, the highest number of any legislator, and narrowly beat out perhaps the most famous user of the earmark process, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who was the sole sponsor for 144 earmarks.

Stevens has become a sort of poster child for earmarks. His ability to steer federal dollars back to his home state of Alaska earned him the nickname "Uncle Ted." Steven's ability was so great that even his conviction on federal criminal charges wasn't enough ensure his political downfall. Stevens' re-election bid is still up in the air as the final votes are counted, but the tight election proved just how important the earmarks process has become to legislator popularity with constituents.

LegiStorm anticipates adding the earmark spending data for fiscal year 2009 after the budget process is complete.

Founded in September 2006, LegiStorm maintains an array of data tools that promote transparency in the U.S. Congress, including the only database of congressional staff salaries and personal financial disclosures, the most comprehensive and up-to-date database of privately sponsored travel, and the only source for gifts provided to congressional employees by foreign governments. The Web site has garnered critical acclaim nationwide for providing citizens with tools.

LegiStorm is a sister company to Storming Media, a provider of Pentagon documents, and PatentStorm, a provider of U.S. patent information.

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