Free Republic

Lawmakers are putting in for police body cams, road repairs, community upgrades – and requests for funds ranging from a yoga program in New Jersey and a science center in Florida, now that a prohibition on 'earmark' requests has ended. House Republicans ended earmarks in 2011 following a series of scandals, but voted to bring them back in March, and the House majority voted to reinstate them. Under new reforms meant to stem abuses, the House Appropriations Committee publicly lists members' individual requests. More than 300 lawmakers have submitted proposals – although some critics of the practice have held back.

Earmark requests from both parties top $6B in value EXCLUSIVE: $1,750,000 to spruce up the Japanese Garden in Portland. $436,100 for a "meditation and restorative yoga" program in New Jersey. And $250,000 to expand the Michelle Obama Library in California. These are just some of the controversial Community Funding Project requests filed by federal lawmakers as earmarks make a return in Congress. Democrats and Republicans in Congress have asked for at least $6 billion in additional funding for local projects ahead of the upcoming federal budget, Fox News can reveal exclusively. And, while many lawmakers have tried to limit their...

WASHINGTON – A sleepy Montana checkpoint along the Canadian border that sees about three travelers a day will get $15 million under President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan. A government priority list ranked the project as marginal, but two powerful Democratic senators persuaded the administration to make it happen. Despite Obama's promises that the stimulus plan would be transparent and free of politics, the government is handing out $720 million for border upgrades under a process that is both secretive and susceptible to political influence. This allowed low-priority projects such as the checkpoint in Whitetail, Mont., to skip ahead of...

WASHINGTON - So much for trimming the pork. The practice of decorating legislation with billions of dollars in pet projects and federal contracts is still thriving on Capitol Hill — despite public outrage that helped flip control of Congress two years ago. More than 11,000 of those "earmarks," worth nearly $15 billion in all, were slipped into legislation telling the government where to spend taxpayers' money this year, keeping the issue at the center of Washington's culture of money, influence and politics. Now comes an election-year encore. It's a pay-to-play sandbox where waste and abuse often obscure the good that...

WASHINGTON - Get out the trough, it's feeding time. Congress has decided that an election year with recession written all over it is not the time to be giving up those job-producing "pork" projects bemoaned by both parties' presidential candidates. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has quietly shelved the idea of a one-year moratorium on so-called earmarks, the $18 billion or so in pet projects that lawmakers sent to their home states this year. Senators in both parties have voted to kill the idea. The California Democrat earlier had signaled her support for the idea of including no legislative earmarks in...

A new era is about to begin at Midway ‘‘State’’ Park as the facility becomes the first historic amusement park in New York state following 108 years of private ownership. A new sign will greet park visitors and passers-by along Route 430. The sign measures 24 by 12 feet and is comprised of 14 sections. The sign was designed by Tom Proctor, a state employee, at the Niagara Region Sign Shop located at the Whirlpool Maintenance Center in Niagara Falls, N.Y. The hand-painted sign was lifted into place Monday by Ray Munson, Mike Heilman, Joe Gaughan and Andy Hillman, all...

Rossputin recently had a post about the 2005 Transportation Bill, or the “Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy For Users (TEA-LU).” The bill comes in at the everyday-low-price of just $283.9 billion – a mere 42% increase over the 1998-2003 bill. The Transportation Committee proudly asserts, the bill “will continue and protect existing U.S. jobs in the transportation sector and related industries. Millions of new jobs will be created and sustained by the infrastructure funding increases in TEA LU.” Or: In other words, the transportation bill is about buying the votes of those who do or will feed at the trough...