Skimming Pork
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, May 20, 2008 | 04:57 PM
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, May 20, 2008 | 04:57 PM
Members of Congress love their earmarks -- to the tune of $20 billion this year, for 11,000 pet projects. Not surprisingly, they want to make sure than the dollars go to the intended recipients of their largesse, and not into agencies' coffers.
The New York Times reports today on how Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., ordered up a Congressional Budget Office study of what he calls "earmark skimming": the practice by some agencies of taking a cut off the top of some earmarks to pay for the cost of administering the funds. He says the government needs a standard for how much of a cut is acceptable.
Right now, the amount agencies take varies widely -- from nothing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development to 25 percent at the Defense Department.
Comments
Senator Nelson's cluelessness about overhead costs -- suggesting that staff salaries and postage are 'unrelated' to delivering his pork pies -- illustrates why Congress so frequently inflicts idiotic management reforms on the agencies. It's because most members haven't got the faintest idea what management is...
Skepticus | Wednesday, May 21, 2008 | 12:42 PMAm I missing something here, but isn't earmarking by definition "skimming" the taxpayers to direct public funding to special interest groups and campaign contributors of politicians?
Annie Frank | Tuesday, May 20, 2008 | 10:10 PMABOUT THIS BLOG
Government Executive Editor Tom Shoop takes a look at news and events affecting the federal bureaucracy, from the perspective of a longtime observer of government.
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