The Transportation Security Administration let 5,700 pieces of unused security equipment worth $184 million sit in storage in a Dallas, Texas, warehouse, which costs $3.5 million annually to lease and manage. Taxpayers lost another $23 million in depreciation costs, because most of the 472 carry-on baggage screening machines had been housed there for nine months or more. That’s a lot of money!
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Sending 11 students and 4 teachers from an Arkansas university to the U.N. climate change convention in Copenhagen, using almost 54,000 lbs of carbon dioxide from air travel alone ($50,000)
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The Internal Revenue Service spent $4.1 million on a lavish conference in 2010 for 2,609 of its employees in Anaheim, California. Expenses included $50,000 for line-dancing and “Star Trek” parody videos, $135,350 for outside speakers, $64,000 in conference “swag” for the employees, plus free meals, cocktails, and hotel suite upgrades.
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8: University in Indiana studying why young men do not like to wear condoms ($221,355)
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The National Science Foundation used part of a half-million dollar grant to develop a video game that simulates a high school prom.
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Taxpayer-funded Amtrak recovered only 44 cents of every dollar of its food and beverage costs on long-distance routes, which already annually lose money.
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The Oval Office is getting a facelift. While it’s out of commission, the President will need a pseudo-Oval Office, right? $376 million will go to an Oval Office renovation and plans to construct a second office for the President to use during the renovation.
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Road signs touting stimulus funds at work in Ohio ($1 million)
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Studying the impact of global warming on wildflowers in a Colorado ghost town ($500,000)
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The U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research spent $300,000 on a study that concluded the first bird on Earth probably had black feathers.
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