As this blog has discussed many times, while Congressional earmarks have received a lot of attention over the years, the Executive Branch has escaped public scrutiny for its own budget earmarks, as administrations of both parties have doled out money to all 50 states with little oversight and publicity.
Unlike the lists of spending that we used to be able to come up with in Congressional legislation, it is extraordinarily difficult to develop a list of how various federal departments hand out big chunks of money.
The main way that I find out about "grants" by a certain federal agency is when a member of Congress touts how his/her district is getting money for some kind of research or project. But even then, you usually can't find a thorough list of those grants.
On Tuesday though, the office of Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) sent out to reporters a handy rundown of recent grants for different organizations in his Georgia district; give it a look for yourself.
You can make the call on whether this is spending you can support or whether you think this is the type of budget item that should be cut back by the Congress.
Lewis' office says these various grants come to a total of $57.1 million - a small drop in the bucket of the federal budget.
As this blog has discussed many times, while Congressional earmarks have received a lot of attention over the years, the Executive Branch has escaped public scrutiny for its own budget earmarks, as administrations of both parties have doled out money to all 50 states with little oversight and publicity. Unlike ...
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