Ted Stevens Fesses Up!
 

The Congress is totally out of control on earmarking of funds for pet projects in the home districts so Senator Tom Coburn sponsored S.2590: A bill to require full disclosure of all entities and organizations receiving federal funds to shine some light on the problem.  

Summary:

Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 - Directs the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to ensure the existence and operation of a single updated searchable database website accessible by the public at no cost, that includes for each entity receiving federal funding: (1) the amount of federal funds received in each of the last 10 fiscal years; (2) an itemized breakdown of each transaction; (3) the entity's location and primary location of performance; and (4) a unique identifier for the entity and its parent entity.

The bill was moving in Congress when an unknown senator put a secret hold on the legislation.  That stopped the bill from moving. 

But last week, the blogosphere swung into action to try and find out who the senator was that put the hold on the bill.

Porkbusters.org

Today, Ted Stevens (R-Ak) confessed.  It's not surprising that the offending senator would be Ted Stevens. As far as pork is concerned, Stevens is the biggest oinker at the trough.   Alaska receives more federal money per capita than any other state.

The reason why this legislation is so important is obvious when you look at the spreadsheet of earmarks produced by the Sunlight Foundation. 

The Examiner website has the earmarks by state so you can see how much pork your members of Congress brought home - and for what:

http://www.examiner.com/earmarks/

Hill leaders may be pressed to give up district projects
http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/012506/earmark2.html

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) earmarked $200,000 to Paw Paw, Ill., in the fiscal-year 2005 omnibus spending bill to replace the town’s 100-year-old water-storage tower and $750,000 to ensure that the Farnsworth House Museum remained in Plano, a nearby city.

Without the money, Paw Paw’s residents would have had to levy a tax to pay for a new water tower that would have cost each family about $560. With its federal aid, the museum — one of the most renowned homes in the world — opted against moving to Pennsylvania.