One Byrd Gets Lion's Share Of Earmarks

At age 90, Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia has been in the Senate longer than anybody else. And he's spent much of that time as head of the most powerful spending committee, with extraordinary control over earmarks - grants of your tax dollars without the normal public review, CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports for Follow the Money.

Byrd was the first senator to rack up a total of $1 billion in earmarks for his home state.

That was in 1999. Today he's past the $3 billion mark.

In his famously colorful Senate speeches, Byrd has repeatedly defended his earmarks.

"Hear me!! Some members have asserted that all, all, all earmarked funding is wasteful spending or an abuse of power," Byrd said. "Hogwash!"

And though tradition frowns on sitting members of Congress funding projects in their own name, they don't seem to have a problem with it in Byrd Country. West Virginia is full of ventures paid for with your tax dollars but named after him.

You can take the Robert C. Byrd Highway to the Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam, explore space through the Robert C. Byrd Telescope, and work at the Robert C. Byrd Hilltop Office Complex.

In all, we found more than 40 projects bearing the Byrd name. Many of them sound perfectly reasonable, but the problem is other needy communities never get a crack at the money.

"He's unabashedly unapologetic about his earmarking," said watchdog Leslie Paige, who calls the earmarks "Byrd droppings."

"It's always been 'to the victor goes the spoils' with these earmarks," said Paige, who works for Citizens Against Government Waste. "Which means if you've got a member who sits on a powerful committee, you're gonna get the lion's share of that money."

But it's made Byrd a hero back home.

"Yeah man, you're lookin' at Big Daddy. Big Daddy!"

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Read more about Byrd's pet projects at Couric & Co.

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That's Byrd at the opening of the Robert C. Byrd Biotech Center, to which he generously gave $35.6 million of your tax dollars.

"Our effort to construct this facility and create a stronger foundation for the biotech industry here in West Virginia began where? With a visit to my office. Yeah. Yeah man," Byrd said. "A visit to my office, yeah."

Byrd wouldn't agree to an interview with CBS News.

His five decades in office have been money in the bank for West Virginians. So much so, they might consider some sort of monument in Byrd's name.

Except there are already so many.

[dalidog255]

I ask you rfcnj68, would you rather have bombs & an illegal war or telescopes that map the universe (look at Green Bank Obervatory''s website? Tax dollars are needed for roads, bridges, parks, etc. I do know my Girl Scouts wrote to Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, Alma Powell, and Katie Couric, Anne Holton (Gov Tim Kaine of VA wife) all former Girl Scouts. They all wrote back except Katie Couric ~ go figure.

[micma-2009]

We need to make earmarks more transparent.

[crawdadmax]

Let''s not forget that George Bush signs all of these bills.

[phoenixandy]

I''d like to know if Sharyl Atkinson plans to do any stories of Republicans collecting earmarks. Her partisan one-sided reports against the Democrats not only makes her a disgrace among responsible journalists worldwide, she is also a hypocrite and a charlatan.

[bethatwork]

Highway - infrastructure.
Locks and dams - infrastructure.
Radio telescope - exploration and scientific knowledge.
Hilltop Building - at least it isn''t a bridge to nowhere.

[fairandbal]

The pro GOP parade on CBS continues. No mention of Senator Stevens in Alaska''s billion dollar bridge to no-where.

CBS and the other MSM outlets are gearing up for supporting GOP interests in 2008. Way to do independent free media!!!

[nor-one]

Wake up idiots! Of course ear marks are legal! When you have thieves making the laws of course stealing is going to be legal. But only for them.

[whatithink-2009]

So much money going to West Virginia yet the vast majority of the population remains poor, the education system remains substandard and the best jobs you can get are working in dirty coal mines.

[whatithink-2009]

If people only truly became aware of how much of their tax dollars were wasted on frivolous things.

[alexma50085]

Earmarks are the biggest load of s h i t the government has ever come up with. It just a way to get money without anybody telling them no, and without the American people even knowing about it. With all this money that we give out in earmarks, you think we could reverse it and bring down our 9 trillion dollar national debt. But no, our government just wants to keep spending and spending, and spending more money that we don''t have. Our national debt is what is going to make our country economy bomb. The balloon is about to burst and we going to be heading into another depression, probably worse than that of the 20''s.