Catherine Rampell writes in the New York Times‘s Economix blog that universities and military contractors dominate the list of biggest congressional earmark recipients for fiscal year 2009. But New England, despite its high-profile schools, doesn’t have much of a presence on the list.
The Center for Responsive Politics is compiling data on the earmarks as it becomes available; so far, the biggest recipients are the University of Alabama (with $41 million in earmarks), Mississippi State University (a distant second, with $17 million), and the University of Mississippi ($13 million).
The 53 recipients of more than $1 million also includes universities in Iowa, North Dakota, Maryland, and Texas, but only one New England institution (the University of Connecticut, with $1.1 million).
Only one seven-digit-plus award is headed solely to the Bay State. The New England Aquarium has been awarded $1.25 million “for research of environmentally sensitive gear technologies designed to reduce bycatch.”