In 2006, Harper’s and TPM Muckraker reported extensively on Trident Systems Incorporated, a Fairfax, Virginia-based firm that had an excellent record of winning federal earmarks with the help of Representative Jerry Lewis, a California Republican who then headed the House Appropriations Committee.
Of course, that was before Congress passed a reform bill that cleaned up the earmarking process.
But wait–guess which firm was allocated millions of dollars in earmarks this year with the help of Lewis and Democratic Congressman John Murtha (the deadliest pork-seeking missile ever invented)? Yes, that would be Trident Systems.
You can find all earmark recipients at a database created by Taxpayers for Common Sense. The group reported that Congress inserted 12,881 earmarks worth $18.3 billion into this year’s spending bills.
