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Questions

1. Read the "Background" below. How much of the defense spending bill was earmarked by senators for their home states?

2. From what part of the defense spending bill did the senators take most of the money for their pet projects, according to analyst Winslow Wheeler?

3. What are the O&M accounts, and how are they used?

4. How did Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (Democrat-Hawaii) defend his earmarks?

5. Under "Background" below, read the explanation of how the defense appropriations bill is used.
a) Re-read paragraphs 12-15 for the explanations given by Senators John Kerry, Mary Landrieu and David Vittter for their earmarks in the defense bill. What do you think of their explanations?
b) Should the projects above and the others described in para. 16 be included in the defense spending bill? Explain your answer.

Background

EARMARKS/PORK BARREL SPENDING

• An appropriation is defined as a legislative act authorizing the expenditure of a designated amount of public funds for a specific purpose.
• The purpose of the Senate Appropriations Committee is to control the appropriations process, as well as to ensure better management of Government spending by giving one committee the sole responsibility to examine executive agency budget estimates.
• Pork-barrel, or ear-mark spending is a process by which congressmen add expenses for special projects onto important legislation that have nothing to do with the legislation to earn favor from voters in their states.  Adding the expenses onto legislation that needs to get passed ensures that it will pass through Congress easily.  The added expenses are used for special projects for Members of Congress to distribute to their constituents back home as an act of largesse, courtesy of the federal taxpayer.
• In one case of pork-barrel spending in 2006, the Senate added billions of dollars in non-emergency spending to a bill that was meant to provide emergency funds for our troops in the field and those still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

APPROPRIATIONS BILL BASICS:  To understand the defense appropriations bill, it is necessary to briefly review its basic contents. These bills are typically divided into eight categories, or "Titles," as follows:
(from d-n-i.net/fcs/defense_budget_tutorial_2.htm)

• Military Personnel: funds the pay, benefits, and pensions for people in the military services, both active duty and the reserves; also included are housing allowances, some travel costs, and social security contributions. The amount appropriated for 2006 was $97.0 billion, $1.2 billion less than what the president asked for in his budget request.

• Operation and Maintenance (O&M): a very diverse account that includes the costs to operate forces (i.e., gasoline, food, clothing, logistics, and more), upkeep for military facilities, weapons maintenance at DOD depots, training and military exercises, most transportation costs, spare parts, ROTC, all civilian salaries in the Pentagon, and almost anything else that doesn't fit in the other parts of the budget. For 2006, Congress appropriated $123.6 billion, $3.3 billion less than the president's request.

• Procurement: the purchase of major hardware items for all military services (procurement of "minor" items, such as some spare parts, occurs in the O&M budget). Congress appropriated $76.5 billion; $100 million less than president's proposal.

• Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (R&D): the development and testing of all hardware. The 2006 appropriation was $72.1 billion, $2.7 billion more than the White House request.

• Revolving and Management Funds: the financing of transactions between components inside the Department of Defense and to support some shipbuilding. The 2006 appropriation was $2.3 billion, $800 million less than the request.

• Other DOD Programs: constituting the Defense Health Program (89 percent of this category), plus chemical munitions destruction, and the DOD Inspector General. Congress increased the request by $400 million to $22.7 billion.

• General Provisions: a hodge-podge, varying from adding pork spending for Alaskan military bases, fisheries, and natural gas pipelines, in addition to protection for American producers of steel plate and anchor chain from foreign competition, support for specific military retirement homes, road building projects, museums, and other more significant purposes, described in detail below.