The House and Senate gave final congressional approval to sweeping economic-recovery legislation, marking a new milestone of federal intervention in the nation’s economy.
The action came a little more than a year after the Democratic Congress, pushed by then-President George W. Bush, adopted a stimulus package that was less than a third the size of the revised $787.2 billion plan approved Friday.
How am I going to spend my extra $8.00/week, what will I do with my stimulus money? Obama and the Democrats are too kind to the American citizens.
After a month of wrangling, Congress voted to pass a compromise economic recovery package of spending provisions, tax cuts and aid to laid-off workers and their families. The 1,073-page bill contains hundreds of provisions.
Not a single Republican backed the package Friday in the House, where seven Democrats joined 176 Republicans in opposition, and 246 voted for it.
Hours later, the Senate, voting 60-38, cleared the measure to be sent to the White House for President Barack Obama to sign into law. Three Republicans joined with 57 Senate Democrats in support of the package; 38 Republicans voted against it. source.
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Earmarks Disclosed by Congress: FY2008-FY2010 Regular Appropriations BillsIn 2007, both the House and the Senate established new earmark transparency procedures. They provide for public disclosure of approved earmarks and the identification of their congressional sponsors. These procedures currently are contained in House Rule XXI, clause 9, and Senate Rule XLIV. Under both chambers’ rules, an earmark is a provision in legislation or report language that is included primarily at the request of a Member, and provides, authorizes, or recommends a specific amount to an entity or to a specific state, locality, or congressional district.This report summarizes the earmarks disclosed for the 12 regular, annual appropriations bills for each of FY2008, FY2009, and FY2010. For these bills, a list of earmarks was typically included in the explanatory statement accompanying the final version of the bill under the heading “Disclosure of Earmarks and Congressionally Directed Spending Items.” This report does not pertain to any earmarks disclosed in supplemental appropriations or authorizing legislation.
This report directly analyzes the data in the earmark disclosure lists, without additions or deletions. For individual earmarks, the disclosures typically identify the federal agency, project name, amount, and requester. In some cases, other information also has been included, such as an account within an agency, or the purpose or location of the earmark.
In FY2010, Congress identified 11,320 earmarks with a total value of $32.0 billion. Some appropriations bills account for more earmarks than others (Table 2). For instance, about four- fifths of the 11,320 earmarks in FY2010 are in five of the 12 appropriations bills. The Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies appropriations bill contains the greatest number of FY2010 earmarks—2,293, about 20% of the total number of earmarks.
The distribution of the value of earmarks is more concentrated, with about $27.5 billion, or 86%, of the value of earmarks in four of the appropriations bills. The Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies appropriations bill contains the greatest value of FY2010 earmarks—$14.5 billion, about 45% of the total value. Some appropriations bills account for fewer earmarks but have a greater share of the value, or vice versa.
House and Senate rules do not require congressional disclosure of presidentially requested earmarks. However, nine appropriations bills in FY2010 list the President as a requester, either solely or with a Member of Congress, for 2,039 earmarks worth $21.8 billion (18% of the total number and 68% of the total value of earmarks in the disclosure lists). It is possible that there are more presidential earmarks than those disclosed by Congress. There were 9,281 Member-only earmarks worth $10.2 billion (82% of the total number and 32% of the total value, Table 3).
From FY2008 to FY2010, the total number of appropriations earmarks in all 12 bills decreased 12%, from 12,810 to 11,320. However, the total value of earmarks increased 11%, from $28.9 billion to $32.0 billion (Table 5). The percentage of the total appropriation that was earmarked decreased from 1.8% in FY2008 to 1.5% in FY2010. Excluding mandatory spending, the percentage of non-mandatory appropriations that were earmarked fell from 2.9% to 2.4%. Both the number and value of President-only earmarks increased since FY2008 (from 819 earmarks worth $4.2 billion in FY2008, to 1,265 earmarks worth $9.5 billion in FY2010; up 54% by number and 126% by value). Conversely, the number and value of Member-only earmarks decreased since FY2008, from 11,117 earmarks worth $12.5 billion in FY2008, to 9,281 earmarks worth $10.2 billion in FY2010, down 17% by number and 19% by value (Table 6).
Earmark reform: understanding the Obligation of Funds Transparency Act: hearing before the Federal Financial Management, Government InformationOriginal publisher: Washington : U.S. G.P.O. : For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 2006. LC Number: KF26 .H633 2006d OCLC Number: (OCoLC)77008387 Subject: Waste in government spending -- United States. Excerpt: ... 11 that the provisions of the conference report will have the force of law. Mr. Chairman, you and I don't have the ability to remove those from the conference report when we are in debate on the floor and when we discuss the provisions of a bill. We can go after the ear-marks in the bill itself, but we can't the conference report. So we have to ban it. And I really believe that the time is right now for it. I was down in Memphis last weekend with a group of the party faithful from all over the country, but mainly from the South, and it was obvious to me from my remarks to them - but more impor-tantly, from their remarks to me - that they know this has got to stop. That we are mortgaging our children's futures. And I think that we have our base energized. They support us. I think the majority of the American people support us, no matter what their party affiliation is. And this is a time to act, and we will be able to do it, I believe, when we take up the lobbying reform. And Mr. Chairman, I was thinking last night in anticipation of appearing before you today, if, for some reason, this reform bill does not proceed, then, Mr. Chairman, I think you and I and our other colleagues have just got to start slapping it on as amend-ments on bills. We can't let another appropriations cycle go by. The appropri-ators are already beginning to shape their bills. We cannot let an-other cycle go by with the kind of activity such as is described on that chart. So, Mr. Chairman, I would appreciate it if you would allow my complete statement to be made part of the record, and I know you have to proceed. But committee reports and manager statements do not have statutory force. They cannot. And departments and agen-cies are not legally bound by their declaratio...
Stimulus Cash Finder: How to get your Share of the $787 Billion Stimulus BillThis Stimulus Cash Finder makes it easy and efficient to find which ones of the 268 stimulus programs in the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act 2009 (ARRA) are right for you. This book solves 2 major problems of the original Act: a Contents with no page numbers and programs distributed all over the Act. In this book there are 5 ways to research programs: a 15 page detailed Contents with page numbers, a List of all programs, 60 page Stimulus Finder which groups programs together, Funding Totals, and a 250 item Index. (You may want to upgrade now to Rupert Hart's "Guide to the Stimulus: The Definitive Desk Reference to the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act 2009", $34.95. Same book as the "Stimulus Cash Finder" but also contains the full unabridged Text of the Act in large readable format with all programs highlighted, all in one bound book). Invaluable for individual taxpayers, families, business owners, managers, investors, state officials, and libraries.
![Monetary Madness: Uncle Sam's Spending Scams (Waste Watch Journal 1992) [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51B6dqK7gZL._SL160_.jpg "Monetary Madness: Uncle Sam's Spending Scams (Waste Watch Journal 1992) [VHS]")
