There are more than 6,000 earmarks in the Senate’s proposed 2011 omnibus spending bill, according to a master list compiled by the staff of pork-hating Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.). The bill is the Senate’s alternative to a simple continuing resolution, which would fund programs at last 2010 fiscal year levels.
Senate Democrats would like to pass the omnibus spending bill by Saturday. Republicans plan to fight the bill, in part by forcing the Senate clerks to read all of its 1,924 pages on the floor, starting tonight. The estimated time for a complete reading: almost 48 hours.
If it does pass, there are 637 earmarks in the two accounts that traditionally scatter pork for juvenile justice programs: The Byrne discretionary account of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, and the discretionary funds for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Virtually all of the OJJDP earmarks are for youth programs, fewer for the Byrne funds.
Of the $273 million in earmarks between the two agencies, $73 million is OJJDP money.
Click here for a database of Byrne and OJJDP earmarks. We have barely had a chance to read it, but at first glance it looks like there are quite a few newcomers to the earmark trough.
Click here for Coburn’s entire list of earmarks.
