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Taxpayers for Common Sense analyzed the 2,321 special-interest items called "earmarks" in the spending bill. The legislation is a temporary measure that would fund the government through March, rather than October 2009, when the next fiscal year ends. It combines spending bills for the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs, as well as nearly $30 billion in disaster relief for flood and hurricane victims and up to $25 billion in loans to automakers.
The House of Representatives approved the measure 370-58 on Wednesday, and the Senate is likely to follow before members leave Washington to head home for the November elections.
Both presidential candidates, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, have criticized earmarks. McCain, who doesn't request earmarks, has said that as president, he would veto any bill containing them. Since joining the Senate in 2005, Obama has requested $860.6 million in earmarks, according to the taxpayer group, but none this year, and he has pledged to reduce them if elected president.
Earmarks represent about 1% of the more than $3 trillion federal budget. They have been at the center of recent criminal investigations, including the conviction of former Republican representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham in 2006 for accepting bribes for earmarks in a defense bill.
Earmarks are mostly used by members of Congress to secure funds for local governments, non-profits and other groups in their home states.
Biden, a senator from Delaware, requested 18 earmarks, according to the bill's language. All of them also were requested by Delaware's other senator, Democrat Tom Carper or its lone congressman, Republican Rep. Mike Castle, or both.
Among other items, Biden and four others were able to secure $3.2 million for second-generation cold-weather clothing for the military, the bill shows.
Biden spokesman David Wade did not respond to messages seeking comment Thursday.
The amount of earmarked spending in the package is about 11% less than in last year's spending bills, says Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, which tracks and criticizes earmarked spending. Last year's bills included 2,438 earmarks worth $7.7 billion. President Bush had vowed to veto any 2009 spending bill that didn't cut earmarks by half or more.
The lawmaker with the highest amount in earmarks in the bill is Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who seeks $238.5 million, according to the Taxpayers for Common Sense analysis. In the House, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., has the highest amount with $111.1 million in earmarks by himself or with others, the analysis shows.
Stevens' trial opened Thursday on criminal charges he failed to report gifts from an oil services contractor on his yearly financial disclosures. Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, has pleaded not guilty. He is a former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which handles spending bills, and stepped down as the ranking Republican on its defense subcommittee after his indictment in July. Murtha is chairman of the defense subcommittee.
"It's startling what a long shadow Sen. Stevens continues to cast," Ellis said. "He's not chairman or ranking member of the committee anymore, yet he still has powerful friends and allies who seem to be willing to deliver more earmarks to him than to themselves or anyone else."
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