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CSI Meets Earmarks
TweetAugust 18, 2006
One of the frustrations of challenging pork in Congressional spending is the fact that members of Congress can attach spending provisions to must pass bills anonymously. Those spending �earmarks� have skyrocketed in recent years. At the same time, a variety of scandals involving defense contractors making bribes, sometimes with political campaign contributions, have revealed the extent of corruption plaguing the secret earmark system.
Now Citizens Against Government Waste, the Heritage Foundation, the Sunlight Foundation and others have now come up with a brilliant strategy for challenging secret spending and holding Congress accountable for runaway spending. They�ve posted 1800 earmarks in a database online and asked citizens to join their CSI team to find out who made the earmarks. Citizens can add information about the earmarks to the database. To join in the fun, start here.
Senator Tom Coburn has taken on heroic efforts to challenge earmarks and set up an informational tool kit for citizens here.
At the time of publication, Beth Daley was the Director of Investigations for the Project On Government Oversight.
Authors: Beth Daley
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POGO's Scott Amey talks about the growing private intelligence industry that includes major federal contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, the former employer of Edward Snowden. Podcast with Joe Newman, Aimee Thomson, Jana Persky and Andre Francisco.
