Tucked within the bloated omnibus spending bill recently passed by Congress and signed by President Bush were over 9,000 earmarks worth more than $7 billion. I took a few minutes to parse the list of earmarks provided by Sen. DeMint for all of the ones specific to Alabama and totaled them for all to see. The waste is profligate. Our tax dollars are being used to study catfish genetics, build a kitchen, and to renovate a theater just to name a few - and that is just in Alabama. The list also includes the recently announced project to tear up a perfectly good road in Huntsville and replace it with a bridge.

Senator Richard Shelby predictably led the pack with $27 million in earmarks. Sen. Jeff Sessions rang up a more svelte $3 million tally. The leading porkers in the house were Mike Rogers, Bud Cramer, and Robert Aderholt. Spencer Bachus, Terry Everett, and Artur Davis showed considerably more restraint with our money.

Remember folks, you just paid for their campaign advertisements!

Project Amount
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Alabama Senior Transportation Program $700 X                

Atmore road improvements $250 X       X        

Bay Area Food Bank, Mobile – for construction of a commercial-size kitchen $250 X       X        

Birmingham Intermodal Transit Facility $400 X           X    

Brannon Street bridge $250 X             X  

Catfish genome, Auburn $878 X           X   X

Church Street overpass $1000 X         X      

City of Birmingham – for land acquisition of an urban outdoor park $250 X     X     X    

City of Center Point – for the Polly Reed Road Greenway and Pedestrian Walkway Project $250 X     X          

City of Hamilton, Fulton Bridge Industrial Park $700 X                

City of Jackson, for construction of a building in conjunction with a 240-acre industrial development park $250         X        

City of Mobile’s Transit System $1400 X       X        

City of Prattville, for Phase II of the public access and use at Cooters Pond Park $100               X  

City of Rainsville – for further construction of the Rainsville Ag Center $330 X   X            

City of Tuscaloosa Downtown Revitalization Project – Twenty First Avenue Phase I and University Boulevard Phase II $4200 X                

Conservation education $217 X                

Detection and food safety $1875 X               X

Franklin Field Airport $1575 X                

Helen Keller Birthplace Foundation in Tuscumbia – for renovation of Ivy Green, the birthplace of Helen Keller $100 X         X      

Highway 55 Hurricane Evacuation Corridor Study $250 X             X  

Huntsville Multimodal Dallas Branch $1250 X         X      

Huntsville Museum of Art – for facility construction, expansion, renovation, and buildout of the museum as a part of the redevelopment of downtown Huntsville $200 X         X      

Improved crop production practices, Auburn $1387 X   X   X       X

Jimmie Hale Mission in Birmingham – for construction of the Jimmie Hale Mission Men’s Center Education and Administration Building $250 X   X X          

Lamar County Commission, Lamar County Industrial Park $560 X                

Lighting along Interstate 85 at exits 77 & 70 $125 X               X

Lineville Downtown Redevelopment Authority – for renovation of theater for economic and community purposes $200 X               X

Marshall County Commission – for purchase and renovation of the Douglas Senior Center $120 X   X            

Mobile Downtown Airport ramp rehabilitation and drain repair $750   X     X        

National Children’s Advocacy Center in Huntsville – for renovation, construction, and buildout at the Child Abuse Digital Library and the training facility $300 X         X      

National Soil Dynamics Laboratory, Auburn $1111 X X X           X

Phenix City – for riverfront development $250 X               X

Precision agriculture $449 X         X     X

Precision agriculture, Tennessee Valley Research Center $445 X         X     X

Red Mountain Greenway and Recreational Area Commission in Jefferson County, for land acquisition and construction $250       X          

Red Mountain Park Project, Birmingham $1000   X              

Scottsboro Municipal Airport improvements $550 X         X      

Southeast Bioenergy $225   X              

Southside bridge replacement, Etowah County $1000 X   X            

The ARC of Madison County facilities expansion $175 X                

Tri-state joint peanut research $443 X             X X

Tuscaloosa Regional Airport Masterplan $200             X    

U.S. Forest Highway 4, Winston County $1000 X   X            

Vaccines and microbe control for fish health, Auburn $1062 X               X

Wall Triana Road project, Madison County $500 X         X      

Wallace Community College in Dothan, for conversion of an existing building to a multi-purpose instructional and training facility on the Sparks Campus in Eufaula $150               X  

Winchester Road widening, Huntsville $750 X         X      

Total # of Earmarks 39 4 7 4 6 10 4 5 11

Total $ of Earmarks $27.0M $3.1M $5.2M $1.0M $4.3M $5.5M $1.7M $1.2M $8.2M

Average Earmark Amount $692k $772k $743k $250k $715k $554k $432k $239k $748k

% of Total AL Earmarks 90% 10% 17% 3% 14% 19% 6% 4% 27%

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This entry was posted by Brian on Monday, December 24th, 2007 at 6:53 am and is filed under Alabama, Pork, Rep. Cramer, Sen. Sessions, Sen. Shelby. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.