Earmarks and the Minnesota delegation

Posted at 3:06 PM on April 12, 2010 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Politics

The Office of Management and Budget today released an analysis showing Washington lawmakers obtained about 2,000 fewer "earmarks" in the last year. The earmark process is a way for congresspeople to stuff pet projects into often-unrelated bills. Several Republican lawmakers in Minnesota (and elsewhere) have vowed not to use earmarks anymore.

Still, 9,192 earmarks, costing taxpayers more than $11 billion, made it it into legislation.

Some of the locals and their projects follow (Source: OMB spreadsheet):

James Oberstar $236,055,000
Predator control programs to protect livestock, Beyond the Yellow Ribbon program, corrosion training simulation program, electric ATVs for the National Guard, in-squad digital cameras for the State Patrol, Northern Lights Express, pedestrian bridge for City of Isanti, Tucson Public Broadcasting solar arrays.

Amy Klobuchar $179,689,000
An instructional program on the Constitution, Northstar and Central Corridor rail projects, 9-1-1 radio system in rural Minnesota, National Guard counter-drug program, Beyond the Yellow Ribbon soldier reintegration program, Midwest Poultry Consortium.

Keith Ellison $54,395,000
Projects included water quality analysis of Minnehaha Creek, equipment for the Hormel research facility, Coe mansion restoration, and transit station in Minneapolis.

Collin Peterson $31,536,000
Tire to track transformer system for light military vehicles, 21st St. underpass project in Moorhead, Minnesota Valley Regional Rail Authority. (See details)

Betty McCollum $28,214,000
Central Corridor study, Czech and Slovak hall restoration, Ramsey County juvenile detention alternative program, College of St. Catherine (now St. Catherine University) for health professions training.

Erik Paulsen - $25,037,000
Beyond the Yellow Ribbon, facilities and equipment for Children's Hospital, Brockton Lane interchange on I-94.

Tim Walz $25,100,000
Soybean genomics, Hormel institute equipment, Allina heart disease prevention program,

Al Franken $5,800,000
Facilities and equipment for Children's Hospital, equipment for the Hormel institute research facility, and College of Saint Scholastica for a rural health technology project.

Members of Congress are supposed to list details of their earmark requests on their Web sites, but few make it very easy to find them.

---

Comments (3)

So depending on who you believe for a cost estimate, we spend on earmarks in one year about what we spend on the war in Iraq in 4-6 weeks.

Posted by MR | April 12, 2010 4:44 PM

---

How do we compare to other states? How do the officials who pledged not to earmark compare to those who didn't?
If percentages are clearer, here they are
Oberstar - 40%
Klobuchar - 31%
Ellison - 9%
Peterson - 5%
McCollum - 5%
Paulson - 4%
Walz - 4%
Franken -

Posted by Phillip | April 12, 2010 5:38 PM

---

Where's Bachmann? Oh ya, she would actually have to do something to have an earmark!

Posted by Donna | April 13, 2010 9:36 AM

---

• E-mail this page
• Print this page
• Tweet this page
• Share this

Services

• Hourly Newscast
• HD Radio
• iPhone App / Mobile
• E-mail newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Submit your photos
• Videos
• Weather
• Most e-mailed stories