1. Follow the (Airport) Money

    By Bill Allison Oct 7, 2009 6:30 p.m.

    Over the past five years, the Federal Aviation Administration has handed out nearly $18 billion in grants for almost 19,000 airport projects. In theory, these projects -- funded through the FAA's Airport Improvement Program -- are supposed to enhance safety or protect the environment. In fact, according to a Subsidyscope analysis of FAA data (neatly assembled into a searchable database by Sunlight's Kaitlin Lee), a fair amount of money has gone toward the building of parking lots and other questionable things.

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  2. $4.5 billion-dollar tariff break back

    By Bill Allison Apr 13, 2009 6:56 p.m.

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  3. New database brings transparency to tariff bills

    By Bill Allison Dec 10, 2008 6:22 p.m.

    Though they likely won't become law in 2008, more than 800 bills that were introduced by 116 members of the House, that would cut taxes on imports by an estimated $1.1 billion, and that were specifically requested by 120 companies and organizations that would benefit from them, are still pending in the 110th Congress. The bills reduce or eliminate tariffs on everything from unicycles to storage batteries for hybrid cars, from hair fibers of the rare vicua to chemicals for making rodent poison. Of the named beneficiaries, 65 hired in-house or outside lobbyists that listed specific bills or tariff duty suspensions as issues they sought to influence, an analysis of records from the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC), and the Senate Office of Public Records shows.

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