While the House Armed Services Committee marks up the 2009 National Defense Authorization Act, TCS staff is scouring the report just posted by the Senate Armed Services Committee explaining its version of the bill. Until we finish reading the legislation, which sets the parameters for the upcoming appropriations debate, we have some numbers on the bill’s earmarks to tide you over. The takeaway: 435 earmarks worth $5.2 billion, a big jump in number from last year’s Senate authorization, but a decrease in total value.

Per usual, the big-ticket earmarks are found in the budget accounts for procurement (89 worth $2 billion) and research and development (240 worth $2 billion). Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) appears to retain his heavyweight earmarking title with 49 requests, but last year’s runner-up Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) ramped down significantly this year, lodging only two requests—a group earmark for “impact aid for children with severe disabilities” and a military construction project with Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) for the New York Air National Guard. Fellow Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama (D-IL) has joined Republican nominee and SASC Ranking Member John McCain (R-AZ) in swearing off earmarks for this legislation.

The weightiest additions:

· $273 million for an additional LPD-17 ship from shipbuilding state senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Roger Wicker (R-MS). Though the Navy has only asked for nine LPDs, the committee report maintains that the service really wants more, as evidenced by the Marine Corps request for a tenth ship as one of its unfunded requirements.

· $500 million for the incoming president to either buy more F-22 Raptors in 2010 or close down the line. The money was originally requested to fix F-15 fighter planes, but the Air Force later decided the repairs were unneeded. The money was redirected via an earmark sponsored by Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Chris Dodd (D-CT), Johnny Isakson (R-GA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME).

· $215 million for a competitive propulsion system for the F-15 Joint Strike Fighter, a program the report says was mandated by the 2008 authorization bill. The money was inserted via a Navy research and development earmark sponsored by Evan Bayh (D-IN), Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

· $350 million for the Air Force’s Transformational Communications Satellite, replacing the money cut by the White House request. The whole committee sponsored the earmark for the program, a perpetual problem child that has run way beyond budget and schedule projections.