Waste of the Day: Throwback Thursday: DOJ Department Takes Millions of Funds Before Closing
Topline: The now defunct National Drug Intelligence Center received a $39 million budget from Congress in 2008, years after officials across Washington had already identified the agency as a complete waste of money.
That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer abuses.
Coburn, the legendary U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, earned the nickname "Dr. No" by stopping thousands of pork-barrel projects using the Senate rules. He included projects that he couldn't stop in his oversight reports.
Coburn's Wastebook 2008 included 65 examples of outrageous spending worth more than $1.3 billion, including the center’s excessive budget — which is worth $57.7 million in today’s money.
Key facts: The center operated as part of the Department of Justice from 1993 to 2012 to gather intelligence on drug trafficking groups so other federal agencies could apprehend them.
Many officials thought the center was pointless even when it was first conceptualized under President George H.W. Bush because it would duplicate the efforts of other drug agencies.
But former Congressman John Murtha earmarked money in a defense spending bill to create the center in Johnstown, Penn., bringing 400 jobs to his home district at the expense of federal funds.
One official told U.S. News & World Report that the National Drug Intelligence Center had to “search for a mission” and got “nothing” out of its roughly $30 million annual budget.
Things got worse once Mike Horn took over as director in 1999. He inexplicably tried to turn the center into an international agency, spending $164,000 over four years so he and his assistant could travel to Hong Kong, London and Vienna, allegedly to promote new intelligence software.
Horn wasn’t fired until 2004, when the deputy attorney general found out the software did not actually exist!
Between 1993 and 2005 the National Drug Intelligence Center cost taxpayers over $350 million, according to U.S. News & World Report.
President George W. Bush tried to shut down the agency in 2005 by cutting its budget to $17 million to fund its closure. It didn’t work; Congress gave the department $39 million instead.
The funding stayed the same when Coburn called out the agency in 2008, and the center increased its budget to $44 million in 2009 with help from Murtha.
Murtha died in 2010, and the agency closed not long after with no one left in Congress to champion its purpose.
Summary: At least the federal government is sometimes transparent about its waste: the NDIC’s website is still online, with a reminder that it hasn’t been updated in 12 years.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
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