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Earmarks: Bringing Home the Bacon
Florida lawmakers end-run the federal budgetary process to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on pet projects each year.
King of Earmarks
 Rep. Bill Young [Photo: Diane Bradford] |
In 2008, Rep. Bill Young (R), the 37-year veteran of the House of Representatives from Florida’s 10th congressional district in Pinellas County, inserted more earmarked dollars into spending bills than any other member of Florida’s congressional delegation and more than all but two other members of Congress. Young doled out close to $104 million in earmarks in Florida for the current spending year, with nearly 90% of the money going to the Tampa Bay area. He sponsored another $65 million with other lawmakers.
How does Young manage to bring home so much bacon? As the ranking minority member of the powerful House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, Young plays a key role in deciding how billions of Pentagon dollars are spent each year.
Not surprisingly, companies in the Tampa Bay region have received a significant chunk of federal money to work on missile technology, navigation technology, bio-terrorism detection programs and other military-related projects. ATK Corp. of Clearwater, for instance, received $4 million for a project related to its “AN/AAR-47” missile warning system. SRI International in St. Petersburg received $1 million to work on “underwater acoustic imaging for maritime domain awareness.”
| Rep. Bill Young's Defense-related Earmarks: | ||
| Recipient | Amount | Project Description |
| AAR Composites (Clearwater) | $1.6 million | Tactical Operation Centers (ELAMS/ESAMS/MECCS) |
| ATK Corp. (Clearwater) | $4 million | AN/AAR-47 Missile Warning System |
| CME (St. Petersburg) | $2.4 million | Lightweight Theater Transportable TOC |
| CME | $2.4 million | Foliage Penetrating Acoustically Cued Imagery Sensor Integration and Technology Evaluation |
| Coda Octopus Group (St. Petersburg) | $2.4 million | Port and Hull Security 3D, Real Time Sonar-System Echoscope |
| Coherent Systems (Largo) | $1 million | SOF Special Purpose Tagging, Tracking and Locating Tool Kit |
| CONAX Florida Corporation (St. Petersburg) | $4 million | HMMWV Restraint System |
| CONAX Florida Corporation | $2.4 million | Inertia Reel Restraint System Retrofit |
| Concurrent Technologies Corporation (Largo) | $1.2 million | SOF Mission Training and Preparation Systems Interoperability |
| Constellation Technology Corp. (St. Petersburg) | $2 million | Continuation of Advanced Materials Research for Nuclear Detection, Counter-proliferation and Imaging |
| Constellation Technology Corp. | $1.6 million | Continuation of Unmanned Vehicle CBRNE Unitary Sensor Suite Development and Demonstration |
| DRS Surveillance Support Systems (Largo) | $1 million | AN/SPY-1 Radar System Readiness Improvement |
| DRS Technologies (Largo) | $4 million | C-Band Active Array Radar System |
| DRS Technologies | $1.6 million | Back Fit Engineering Support for Air Search Radar System |
| DRS Technologies | $1 million | SCOUT Mk3 |
| Eclipse Energy Systems (St. Petersburg) | $1.2 million | Advanced Dynamic Optics Program |
| Enable America, Inc. (Tampa) | $1 million | Warrior Wellness Program |
| Enser Corp. (Pinellas Park) | $1 million | Advanced Battery Technology |
| General Dynamics (St. Petersburg) | $3.2 million | Super High Accuracy Range Kit - 105mm Artillery Technology |
| Honeywell(Clearwater) | $4 million | Ballistic Missile Technology |
| Honeywell | $4 million | Ballistic Missile Range Safety Technology |
| Honeywell | $3.2 million | Precision Terrain Aided Navigation |
| IMC (St. Petersburg) | $1 million | Enterprise-wide Data and Knowledge Management System to Enhance USSOCOM Mission |
| IMC | $2.4 million | NMEC Intelligence Community R&D Lab and Better Service to Combatant Commands |
| IMC | $3.2 million | Improved Information Transfer for Special Forces |
| ITAC (St. Petersburg) | $1.6 million | SOCOM Imagery Dissemination System |
| Marine Desalination Systems (St. Petersburg) | $1 million | Atmospheric Water Harvesting |
| National Forensic Science Technology Center (Largo) | $1.6 million | Expansion of Mobile Forensic Labs and Technical Assistance and Training Support |
| Orion (Clearwater) | $1 million | Modeling and Simulation for Rapid |
| Raytheon Company (Largo) | $4 million | Cooperative Engagement Capability |
| SAIC (St. Petersburg) | $2.4 million | Battlefield Sensor Netting |
| SAIC | $2 million | Environmental Bioterrorism Detection Program |
| SRI International (St. Petersburg) | $4.5 million | Comprehensive Maritime Domain Awareness |
| SRI International | $1.6 million | Application Specific Integrated Circuits Fabrication |
| SRI International | $1 million | Underwater Acoustic Imaging for Maritime Domain Awareness |
| SRI International | $1 million | Micro-systems and nanotechnology for Advanced Technology Development |
| Source: Taxpayers for Commonsense | ||
Next page: A sampling of earmarks put forward by Florida lawmakers.
