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List of Golden Fleece Award recipients
The Golden Fleece Award was an award created by Senator William Proxmire to highlight what he considered wasteful government spending by the United States. Some of the Awards were given to entities that demonstratied efficiency and savings.
Golden Fleece Awards
[edit]| # | Date | Recipient | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975-03 | March 1975 | National Science Foundation | "For squandering $84,000 to try to find out why people fall in love." |
| 1975-04 | April 1975 | National Science Foundation National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Naval Research |
"For spending over $500,000 in the last seven years to determine under what conditions rats, monkeys, and humans bite and clench their jaws. The results of the test found that anger, stopping smoking, and loud noises produce jaw clenching in humans." |
| 1975-05 | May 1975 | Selective Service System Army Corps of Engineers |
"For a $98,029 contract awarded to Kenneth Coffey to study the all-volunteer army concept in foreign countries two years after the all-volunteer army had already been put into effect in the U.S." |
| 1975-06 | June 1975 | U.S. Congress | "For living high off the hog while much of the rest of the country is suffering economic disaster." |
| 1975-07 | July 1975 | Bureau of Land Management | "For requiring useless paperwork on a contract that resulted in a $4,000 piece of equipment costing over $15,000." |
| 1975-08 | August 1975 | Federal Aviation Administration | "For a $57,800 study of the body measurements of airline stewardess trainees." |
| 1975-09 | September 1975 | Department of the Navy | "For using 64 planes to fly 1334 officers to the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas for a reunion of private organization during the height of the energy crisis." |
| 1975-10 | October 1975 | National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism | "For spending millions of dollars to find out if drunk fish are more aggressive than sober fish, if young rats are more likely than adult rats to drink booze in order to reduce anxiety, and if rats can be systematically turned into alcoholics. " |
| 1975-11 | November 1975 | Frank Zarb, Administrator of the Federal Energy Administration | "For spending $25,000 and using almost 19,000 gallons of fuel in ten months to fly around the country in chartered aircraft urging businessmen and civic groups to economize on energy resources." |
| 1975-12 | December 1975 | The White House | "For its efforts to add to its empire through increased funds for consultants, contingencies, travel and high level personnel while calling for austerity from the rest of the government." |
| 1975-12y | Fleece of the Year | Department of the Air Force | "For operating a $66 million fleet of 23 plush jets used solely to transport top government officials at a cost to the taxpayers of over $6 million a year." |
| 1976-01 | January 1976 | National Endowment for the Humanities | "For spending at least $750,000 this year on grants to doctors and others to attend vacation-like, month long seminars." |
| 1976-02 | February 1976 | Department of the Navy | "For turning an expected $15,000 in repairs on Vice President Rockefeller’s temporary home into $537,000 in total expenditures." |
| 1976-03 | March 1976 | National Science Foundation | "For a grant to study 'Environmental Determinants of Human Aggression.' (Specifically, aggression of drivers caught in traffic jams)." |
| 1976-04 | April 1976 | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | "For requesting $2.8 million to construct an addition to the Lunar Laboratory to house 100 pounds of moon rocks." |
| 1976-05 | May 1976 | Federal Aviation Administration | "For spending $417,000 for 95 meteorological instruments which make rain predictions from indoors." |
| 1976-06 | June 1976 | National Center for Health Services | "For cost overruns of up to five times the original amount on over $20 million worth of grants and demonstration contracts." |
| 1976-07 | July 1976 | National Science Foundation’s Research Applied to National Need (RANN) | "For awarding a $397,000 contract to study consumer legislation and services to a principal investigator and research center which were already both biased in favor of credit." |
| 1976-08 | August 1976 | General Services Administration | "For spending over $1 million for 15 statues and murals at federal buildings." |
| 1976-09 | September 1976 | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | "For a $140,000 contracting award for a 6,000 word article and book history of the Viking Mars Landing project." |
| 1976-10 | October 1976 | Department of Housing and Urban Development | "For a $245,000 study of new towns." |
| 1976-11 | November 1976 | Department of the Treasury | "For failing to collect $4.8 million in taxes from government big shots and for losing $17 to $18 million due to Treasury inaction." |
| 1976-12 | December 1976 | Army Corps of Engineers | "Award of the Year for the worst record of cost overruns in the entire federal government - 47% of the Corps current projects had cost overruns of 100% or more." |
| 1976-12y | Fleece of the Year | Army Corps of Engineers | "For the worst record of cost overruns in the entire federal government." |
| 1977-01 | January 1977 | Department of Agriculture | "For spending nearly $46,000 to find out how long it takes to cook breakfast." |
| 1977-02 | February 1977 | Law Enforcement Assistance Administration | For spending nearly $27,000 to determine why inmates want to escape from prison." |
| 1977-03 | March 1977 | Veterans Affairs Director Max Cleland | "Special award of merit to Mr. Cleland for driving himself to and from work in his own car despite the fact that he is a triple amputee. Savings to taxpayers of least $16,000 a year." |
| 1977-04 | April 1977 | Smithsonian Institution | "For spending nearly $89,000 of public funds to produce a dictionary of Tzotzil, an unwritten language spoken by 120,000 corn-farming peasants in Southern Mexico." |
| 1977-05 | May 1977 | National Endowment for the Humanities | "For making a $25,000 grant through the state to Arlington County, VA, to study why people are rude, cheat and lie on the local tennis courts." |
| 1977-06a | June 1977 | the Smithsonian | Award of Merit "for building its Air and Space Museum on time, for less money than originally requested and with an improvement rather than a reduction in quality." |
| 1977-06b | June 1977 | Farmers Home Administration | Award of Merit: "had a 32 percent increase in the weighted total of the loans and grants it made and services it offered, while reducing by 3 percent the number of persons doing the job." |
| 1977-06c | June 1977 | National Science Foundation | Award of Merit "for funding work to build a man-made working gene; research in finding methods of improving nature’s way of replenishing nitrogen in the soil; and supporting pioneering research on how the brain recovers after damage." |
| 1977-07 | July 1977 | U.S. Postal Service | "For spending over $3.4 million on a Madison Avenue ad campaign to make Americans write more letters to one another." |
| 1977-08 | August 1977 | Department of Transportation | "For spending $225,000 on a report which forecasts transportation needs in the year 2025 under four separate science fiction 'scenarios.'" |
| 1977-09 | September 1977 | National Endowment for the Arts | "For a $6025 grant to an artist to film the throwing of crepe paper and burning gases out of a high flying airplane." |
| 1977-10 | October 1977 | Department of Labor | "For granting a $384,948 contract to hire 101 people under a CETA program to do a door-to-door survey to count the dogs, cats, and horses in the 160,000 houses and apartments in Ventura, CA." |
| 1977-11 | November 1977 | Pentagon Civilian and Military brass | "For misusing military aircraft on a massive scale at a cost to the taxpayers of at least $52.3 million." |
| 1977-12 | December 1977 | Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation | "For a series of outrageous personal expenditures by the FDIC Chairman as revealed in a GAO report." |
| 1977-12y | Fleece of the Year | Department of the Treasury | "For its zealous support of an end-of-the-year, end run attempt to amend the tax laws at a cost to the taxpayers of over $400 million." |
| 1978-01 | January 1978 | Law Enforcement Assistance Administration | "For a $2 million prototype police patrol car." |
| 1978-02 | February 1978 | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | "For proposing to spend $14 to $25 billion over the next seven years to try to find intelligent life in outer space." |
| 1978-03 | March 1978 | U.S. Senate | "For proposing to spend over $122 million on a new Senate Office Building that would include a rooftop restaurant and the Senate’s third gym." |
| 1978-04 | April 1978 | National Institute for Mental Health | "For funding a study of behavior and social relationships in a Peruvian brothel. This study was a part of a $97,000 grant." |
| 1978-05 | May 1978 | Agency for International Development | "For a series of deliberate acts, bureaucratic bungles and self-serving deeds that led the agency’s own administrator John J. Gilligan, to complain that AID is 'over-age, over-rank, [and] over-paid.'" |
| 1978-06 | June 1978 | Federal Highway Administration | "For spending $222,000 to study 'Motorist Attitudes Toward Large Trucks.'" |
| 1978-07 | July 1978 | Department of Defense | "For spending over $1.2 million a year from a special fund hidden in the defense budget for gifts, parties, trips, dinners, receptions and other entertainment items." |
| 1978-08 | August 1978 | Department of Agriculture | "For spending federal tax dollars to exercise confined pregnant pigs on a treadmill to relieve their boredom and psychological stress." |
| 1978-09 | September 1978 | Office of Education | "For spending $40,375 in an attempt to give 35 of its ambitious or unhappy bureaucrats a new lease on their career lives." |
| 1978-10 | October 1978 | Environmental Protection Agency | "For spending $38,174 on a two-year study to conclude that runoff from open stacks of cow manure on Vermont farms causes the pollution of water in nearby small streams and ponds." |
| 1978-11 | November 1978 | Department of the Interior | "For spending $145,000 to install a wavemaking machine in a specially designed double-sized swimming pool in Salt Lake City, Utah." |
| 1978-12 | December 1978 | Office of Education | "For spending $219,592 to develop a “curriculum package” to teach college students how to watch television." |
| 1979-01 | January 1979 | Department of Labor | "For funding a $140,000 never-completed consensus of the Samoan population of Orange County, CA." |
| 1979-02 | February 1979 | National Highway Traffic Safety Administration | "For spending $120,126 to build a low-slung, backward steering motorcycle that no one could ride." |
| 1979-03 | March 1979 | Department of the Air Force | "For conducting a six month, $3,000 test at the Pentagon on the use of umbrellas by male personnel in uniform." |
| 1979-04 | April 1979 | Department of Housing and Urban Development Economic Development Administration |
"For spending $279,000 on a community center so completely unused that when it collapsed, it went unreported for days." |
| 1979-05 | May 1979 | U.S. Army and Dr. Percy A. Pierre | "Award of merit for presenting to Congress the most readable and honest presentation on the actual needs of the U.S. Army." |
| 1979-06 | June 1979 | National Park Service | "For a $75,000 slush fund which pays for entertainment, travel, and other expenses in excess of those appropriated for and approved under the Budget." |
| 1979-07 | July 1979 | Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | "For spending at least $6,000 to determine if smoking marijuana has a bad effect on SCUBA divers." |
| 1979-08 | August 1979 | U.S. Congress | "For the eruption in its staff and spending levels over the past decade." |
| 1979-09 | September 1979 | National Science Foundation | "For spending $39,600 to study 'Himalayan Mountaineering, Social Change, and the Evolution of (the Buddhist) Religion among the Sherpas of Nepal.' |
| 1979-10 | October 1979 | Department of Agriculture | "For awarding $90,000 for a two-year study on 'Behavioral Determinants of Vegetarians.'" |
| 1979-11 | November 1979 | Department of the Air Force | "For a last-minute $175,000 spending spree at Clark Air Force Base, the Philippines, designed to use up all available funds before they expired with the new fiscal year." |
| 1979-12 | December 1979 | Department of Energy | "For spending $1,200 under its small grants energy saving technology program to build and test an above ground aerobic and solar-assisted composting toilet." |
| 1980-01 | January 1980 | US Air Force and General Slay | "For initiating a tough, no nonsense program of reducing sole source contracts and replacing them with good old-fashioned American competition which could save millions annually." |
| 1980-02 | February 1980 | Environmental Protection Agency | "For spending an extra $1 to $1.2 million to preserve a Trenton, New Jersey sewer as an historical monument." |
| 1980-03 | March 1980 | National Institute of Mental Health | "For funding a study of why bowlers, hockey fans, and pedestrians smile." |
| 1980-04 | April 1980 | U.S. Coast Guard | "For wasting over half a million dollars on a microfiche conversion project which had to be cancelled when it too three years to complete only seven percent of the required work." |
| 1980-05 | May 1980 | Department of Education | "For fattening its staff and beefing up its budget after promising that if it were created it would include no more people and would cost no more than previously devoted to education programs." |
| 1980-06 | June 1980 | Department of Commerce | "For spending $9,800 to hire a private public relations firs to review and evaluate the Department's public relations efforts." |
| 1980-07 | July 1980 | General Services Administration | "Award of merit for getting the government a break on sky-rocketing air travel costs. This experimental program will save $7 million in the first six months." |
| 1980-08 | August 1980 | Government National Mortgage Association | "For spending $6,918 to buy 1,200 nine by twelve inch simulated leather binders which it sent out to savings and loan associations across the country to commemorate the issue of a total of $100 billion in mortgage backed securities." |
| 1980-09 | September 1980 | Department of Labor | "For funding a summer youth employment program in Tucson, Arizona in which 14 junior college track athletes were paid for twice-a-day training sessions, weekly trips to compete in races, and week-long journeys to Flagstaff, Arizona and Reno, Nevada, to train, compete, and meet with other runners." |
| 1980-10 | October 1980 | Department of Defense | "For understating by $1.5 million various excessive costs in operations public housing for high ranking generals and admirals." |
| 1980-11 | November 1980 | Department of Education's Institute of Museum Services | "For a $25,000 Federal grant to a California Zoo part of which was used to send two animal keepers half way across the country to attend a three day elephant workshop in Tulsa, Oklahoma." |
| 1980-12 | December 1980 | Federal Highway Administration | "For spending $241,764 to produce a computerized system that gives local directions to people who can't or won't read maps." |
| 1981-01 | January 1981 | Office of Personnel Management and the Merit System Protection Board | "For sending out duplicate surveys asking top federal employees how they like their jobs ($126,729)." |
| 1981-02 | February 1981 | Presidential Inaugural Committee | "While proclaiming that no public money was spent on the Inauguration, the Inaugural Committee commandeered 1,120 Marine, soldiers, sailors, and other service personnel to act as chauffeurs and aides to 274 Inaugural VIP's as well as several hundred additional Inaugural celebrants. Estimated cost to taxpayer $1.8 million." |
| 1981-03 | March 1981 | Office of the Architect of the Capital | "For developing plans to build up six new House and Senate Office Buildings that would cost at least $500 million to construct." |
| 1981-04 | April 1981 | Department of Housing and Urban Development | "For letting slum landlords dump their low-quality, sub-standard housing on the backs of taxpayers to the tune of at least $200 billion in fiscal year 1982." |
| 1981-05 | May 1981 | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | "For a Tracking Data Relay and Satellite System (TDRSS). In a recent unreleased internal NASA Inspector General's report, excessive TRDSS costs of $500 million to $1 billion were cited." |
| 1981-06 | June 1981 | Department of Commerce | "For giving City and County of Honolulu $28,600 to study how they can spend another $250,000 for a good surfing beach." |
| 1981-07 | July 1981 | Department of the Army | "For spending $6,000 to prepare a 17-page document that tells the federal government how to buy a bottle of Worcestershire sauce." |
| 1981-08 | August 1981 | Treasury Department managers of the Social Security Trust Fund | "Whose investment policies needlessly lost $2 billion in earnings to the Trust Fund in 1980." |
| 1981-09 | September 1981 | Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration | "For spending $200,000 to build and 800-foot limestone replica of the Great Wall of China in Bedford, Indiana." |
| 1981-10 | October 1981 | National Science Foundation | "For spending $144,012 to test commonly accepted, historically proven, fundamental economic principles of supply and demand on pigeons." |
| 1981-11 | November 1981 | Federal Highway Administration | "For the worst record of civilian cost overruns in the Federal Government." |
| 1981-12 | December 1981 | Department of Defense | "For running a $13,000 six year program in which a bull was tested for possible biological effects resulting from a submarine communications device – a study later found useless by Navy officials. Long subject to local rumors, the story of 'Sylvester the Bull' was recently confirmed in official Navy correspondence." |
| 1982-01 | January 1982 | Department of Agriculture | "For spending $40,000 for a study entitled 'Food Preferences and Social Identity.'" |
| 1982-02 | February 1982 | National Endowment for the Arts | 'For giving a $7,000 grant for a sound and light show at the state capitol in Madison, Wisconsin." |
| 1982-03 | March 1982 | Small Business Administration | "For providing two loan guarantees – almost a million dollars in total – to a California aquatic park for a giant water slide and other construction." |
| 1982-04 | April 1982 | Synthetic Fuels Corporation | "For spending over $44,000 for a study which recommended increasing top salaries to as high as $190,000." |
| 1982-05 | May 1982 | Department of the Army (DARCOM) | "For spending $38 million over 13 years on a new gas mask that is no improvement over the makes it is designed to replace." |
| 1982-06 | June 1982 | Commerce and Labor Departments | "For shelling out over $700,000 to a non-profit corporation which was supposed to teach minority youth how to make tee shirts." |
| 1982-07 | July 1982 | General Services Administration | "For losing 49,000 forms – the equivalent of open-ended airline tickets – with a potential =value of at least $7 million." |
| 1982-08 | August 1982 | Department of Commerce, Minority Business Development Agency | "For spending $138,000 to conduct three management training seminars located at three star resort hotels." |
| 1982-09 | September 1982 | 190 Federal Officials | "Who have been coddled and pampered at the expense of American taxpayers to the tune of $3.4 million by being provided with door-to-door chauffeur service." |
| 1982-10 | October 1982 | Office of Management and Budget | "For letting government big-shots eat high off the hog in 22 private dining rooms at an annual cost to the taxpayers of over $2.3 million." |
| 1982-11 | November 1982 | Public Health Service | "For letting well-heeled doctors welsh on student loans financed by the taxpayer." |
| 1982-12 | December 1982 | Social Security Administration | "For putting together a high-priced team of employees to plan a move to a new computer center and then shelling out $6.7 million to consultants to do the same work." |
| 1983-01 | January 1983 | Economic Development Administration | For allowing US cities and non-profit organizations to misuse a $198 million federal loan fund dedicated to creating local jobs. |
| 1983-02 | February 1983 | General Services Administration | For wasting $1.5 million – with a potential for $13 million more– trying to renovate an old train station in Nashville, Tennessee |
| 1983-03 | March 1983 | Department of the Navy | For spending $11,225 to decorate a Navy captain's office. |
| 1983-04 | April 1983 | Department of Housing and Urban Development | For wasting over $1.2 million, at one area office, by paying several times for work done once, by approving loan payments on non-existent loans, and by blinking at excessive management fees for public housing projects. |
| 1983-05 | May 1982 | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | For spending $22,700 to seek out composers and artists who would like to spend taxpayer money on art and music in a future space station. |
| 1983-06 | June 1983 | National Institute of Education | For a flagrant failure to keep tans on a $900,000 government contract. This resulted in about $500,000 of the taxpayers' money being blown on everything for unsecured personal loans to purchasing a disco and promoting a rock concert. |
| 1983-07 | July 1983 | U.S. Coast Guard | For spending $1.1. million to build a boat repair station at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, which sat empty and unused for about a year. |
| 1983-08 | August 1983 | U.S. District Court Judges of Atlanta, GA | For fixing the jury on design and construction of the Richard B. Russell Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse and then serving the taxpayers with their bill for an extra $7 million. |
| 1983-09 | September 1983 | Department of the Army | For spending about $20,000 to prepare 30,000 fancy, multi-colored pamphlets explaining how to play King of the Hill. |
| 1983-10 | October 1983 | Department of Housing and Urban Development | Wasted $232,000 of taxpayers' money by miscalculating rental payments. |
| 1983-11 | November 1983 | Health Care Financing Administration | Clipped the taxpayer of $45 million by allowing Medicare to foot the bill for cutting toenails. |
| 1983-12 | December 1983 | Economic Development Administration | Allowed firm to violate terms of a $2.5 million federal loan by loaning $500,000 interest free to company's Sole stockholder, paying $314,320 in cash for a helicopter – used by sole stockholder, purchasing a $65,000 lakeside cabin and spending $1.7 million on other questionable transactions. |
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