July - Rep. Tom Davis Porker of the Month

Washington, D.C. Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) Porker of the Month for sponsoring a federal bailout of the Washington, D.C. Metro system. The National Capital Transportation Amendments Act of 2005 (H.R. 3496) provides $1.5 billion over 10 years to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).



Congress has bailed out WMATA three times since 1967, costing a total of $6.2 billion. A series of reports in The Washington Post in June 2005 detailed how Metro mismanaged $1 billion in projects. Metro spent $383 million purchasing faulty new subway cars that broke down and needed repairs as often as the old ones they were replacing. Hundreds of millions of dollars were wasted renovating cars and escalators many of which were made worse than before.

Read more here.