(September 16)   In passing its edition of the FY2011 defense spending bill today, the Senate Appropriations Committee didn’t add much to the defense subcommittee’s Tuesday mark—unsurprising considering subcommittee leaders Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and Thad Cochran (R-MS) are also the full committee's chair and vice chairman. Inouye and Cochran are also the bill’s top earmarkers, adding $195 million and $212 million, respectively, in local projects to the legislation (some co-sponsored with other lawmakers).  

The earmark totals show the Senate isn’t listening to the debate that resulted in the House drastically cutting earmarks in this year’s spending bills. The Senate trend line of earmarks added to defense bills has stayed relatively flat over the past three years:  777 earmarks worth $2.6 billion in FY2010 and 949 earmarks worth $2.9 billion in FY2009. But considering the billions in earmarks added in years past – $4.5 billion in FY2008—it’s clear the average value of each earmark is going down as lawmakers try to avoid attracting attention for expensive pork vehicles.

The bill’s $669.8 billion topline claims to cut more than $8 billion from the White House request, though details won’t surface until the bill report is released. Other notable elements of the bill include an absence of funding for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine; elimination of a Littoral Combat Ship worth $425 million; and money to terminate the controversial Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle if it flunks “reliability testing.”

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(September 15) We’ve tallied the earmarks in the FY11 defense spending bill released Tuesday by the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, and so far Senators are closely following their 2010 precedent.

The bill contains 762 earmarks worth $2.57 billion (ah, let’s call it $2.6), barely budging from last year’s total of 777 earmarks worth $2.6 billion. We’re sifting through the list while we wait to see what happens at tomorrow’s full committee markup. In the meantime, here are the largest ones hiding in plain sight:

• $40 million for a “Gulf Coast Land Based Test Facility” sponsored by committee Vice Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Roger Wicker (R-MS). This Northrop Grumman facility in Pascagoula, MS would test “complex components” on land before transfer to Navy ships.
• $25 million for the Hawaii Federal Health Care Network from subcommittee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI). This program has received millions from Inouye in past defense spending bills.  
• $19 million, also from Inouye, for a “Hawaii Surveillance Initiative,” which deploys radars and various other technologies for “maritime domain awareness,” according to his disclosure documents.

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(July 30) Congress took its first step toward a new defense bill—and veto showdown—this week with the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee markup of the FY2011 defense appropriations bill. The bill trims $7 billion from the Defense Department’s request, particularly from operations and maintenance funds, but adds money for, among other things, a $495 million for an alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft that President Obama has pledged to kill via veto. 

The bill also adds some 458 earmarks worth $1.22 billion, listed in a chart released by the committee after the markup. The chart is worth scrutinizing since we have found little departure from the earmark totals released by subcommittees and those passed by the full House or Senate, thanks to new rules requiring lawmakers to disclose their earmark requests early in the appropriations process.  

The vast majority of earmarks—456 worth $1.21 billion—were added by Democrats, since House Republicans declared an earmark moratorium earlier this year. Top earmarking honors go to Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), who sponsored 11 worth nearly $50 million, with longtime defense appropriator Jim Moran (VA) and new subcommittee chairman Norm Dicks (WA) close behind with $44.8 million and $48.8 million, respectively. The only two Republicans to add earmarks were Joseph Cao (LA), who secured a $2.5 million earmark to Xavier University for “biosensors for defense application,” and Don Young, who carried the torch for Alaska with a $10 million add for the Port of Anchorage Intermodal Expansion Project. 

The “biggest” earmarks in the bill actually number seven, each worth $10 million. Two of the biggest go to vanity projects named after former members of Congress. The John P. Murtha Center for Public Service, located in the late Defense Appropriations Chairman’s hometown of Johnstown, PA received $10 million from a group of colleagues led by Congressional successor and former aide Mark Critz (PA) that also includes Ryan, Jim Moran (VA), Chaka Fattah (PA) and Robert Brady (PA). The Center’s mission—“educating and inspiring students” in addition to housing Murtha’s private papers—mirrors that of another namesake institution that received its second multimillion-dollar earmark this year. That would be the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Boston, recipient of a $10 million earmark sponsored by Ed Markey (MA) on top of the $20 million earmark that founded it last year. 

• An effort to “re-skin,” or replace siding, for a hangar at Moffett Field in Mountain View, CA co-sponsored by California reps. Anna Eshoo, Zoe Lofgren, Sam Farr, Mike Honda and Mike Thompson.
   
• The Institute for Personalized Medicine and Translational Research at Inova, a nonprofit health care organization in Northern Virginia, sponsored by Moran and Gerry Connolly of Virginia.
   
• The “proton therapy Institute” at Hampton University in Hampton, VA, which treats cancer patients with proton therapy. Sponsored by Moran and Bobby Scott of Virginia.
   
• The United States Olympic Committee Paralympic Military Program, sponsored by Jim Langevin (D-RI) and Patrick Kennedy (D-MA). The program operates a training camp in Newport, RI.

We’ll release a complete database of the bill’s earmarks after it passes the full House. No promises as to when that will happen in this election year, however.