Golden Fleece Award
Encyclopedia
The Golden Fleece Award is presented to those public officials in the United States
whom the judges feel waste public money.
Established in 1975 by former U.S. Senator
William Proxmire
(D
-Wisconsin
), and issued until 1988, it was revived by the Advisory Board of the Taxpayers for Common Sense
in 2000. Its name is a tangential reference to the Order of the Golden Fleece
, and a play on the transitive verb to fleece, as in charging excessively for goods or services.
Award winners included:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
whom the judges feel waste public money.
Established in 1975 by former U.S. Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
William Proxmire
William Proxmire
Edward William Proxmire was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States Senator from Wisconsin from 1957 to 1989.-Personal life:...
(D
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
-Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
), and issued until 1988, it was revived by the Advisory Board of the Taxpayers for Common Sense
Taxpayers for Common Sense
Taxpayers for Common Sense is a nonpartisan federal budget watchdog organization based in Washington, D.C. in the United States. TCS is a 501 non-profit organization; its 501 affiliate is Taxpayers for Common Sense Action . The current president of TCS is Ryan Alexander...
in 2000. Its name is a tangential reference to the Order of the Golden Fleece
Order of the Golden Fleece
The Order of the Golden Fleece is an order of chivalry founded in Bruges by Philip III, Duke of Burgundy in 1430, to celebrate his marriage to the Portuguese princess Infanta Isabella of Portugal, daughter of King John I of Portugal. It evolved as one of the most prestigious orders in Europe...
, and a play on the transitive verb to fleece, as in charging excessively for goods or services.
Award winners included:
- Bureau of Land ManagementBureau of Land ManagementThe Bureau of Land Management is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior which administers America's public lands, totaling approximately , or one-eighth of the landmass of the country. The BLM also manages of subsurface mineral estate underlying federal, state and private...
. - MIT, for the Aspen Movie MapAspen Movie MapThe Aspen Movie Map was a revolutionary hypermedia system developed at MIT by a team working with Andrew Lippman in 1978 with funding from ARPA.-Features:...
. - NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's SETISETIThe search for extraterrestrial intelligence is the collective name for a number of activities people undertake to search for intelligent extraterrestrial life. Some of the most well known projects are run by the SETI Institute. SETI projects use scientific methods to search for intelligent life...
program for the scientific search for extraterrestrialExtraterrestrial lifeExtraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
civilizationCivilizationCivilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally...
s, although he backpedaled after being visited by Dr. Carl SaganCarl SaganCarl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...
. - Paul EkmanPaul EkmanPaul Ekman is a psychologist who has been a pioneer in the study of emotions and their relation to facial expressions. He has been considered one of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the twentieth century...
's research that led to the development of the Facial Action Coding SystemFacial Action Coding SystemFacial Action Coding System is a system to taxonomize human facial expressions, originally developed by Paul Ekman and Wallace V. Friesen in 1978...
. - National Park ServiceNational Park ServiceThe National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
. - Federal Aviation AdministrationFederal Aviation AdministrationThe Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...
for spending $57,800 on a study of the physical measurements of 432 airline stewardesses, paying special attention to the "length of the buttocks" and how their knees were arranged when they were seated. - National Institute on Drug AbuseNational Institute on Drug AbuseThe National Institute on Drug Abuse is a United States federal-government research institute whose mission is to "lead the Nation in bringing the power of science to bear on drug abuse and addiction."-History:...
(NIDA) funded project by psychologist Harris Rubin for $121,000, on developing "some objective evidence concerning marijuana's effect on sexual arousal by exposing groups of male pot-smokers to pornographic films and measuring their responses by means of sensors attached to their penises, in 1976. - National Science FoundationNational Science FoundationThe National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
for spending $84,000 on a study on love. - National Institute for Mental Health for spending $97,000 to study, among other things, what went on in a Peruvian brothel; the researchers said they made repeated visits in the interests of accuracy.
- Office of Education for spending $219,592 in a “curriculum package” to teach college students how to watch television.
- United States CongressUnited States CongressThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
. - United States Department of the ArmyUnited States Department of the ArmyThe Department of the Army is one of the three military departments within the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The Department of the Army is the Federal Government agency which the United States Army is organized within, and it is led by the Secretary of the Army who has...
for a 1981 study on how to buy Worcestershire sauceWorcestershire sauceWorcestershire sauce , or Worcester sauce is a fermented liquid condiment; primarily used to flavour meat or fish dishes.First made at 60 Broad Street, Worcester, England, by two dispensing chemists, John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins, the Lea & Perrins brand was commercialised in 1837 and...
. (Federal Specification EE-W-600F) - United States Department of DefenseUnited States Department of DefenseThe United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
for a $3,000 study to determine if people in the military should carry umbrellas in the rain. - United States Department of JusticeUnited States Department of JusticeThe United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
for conducting a study on why prisoners want to get out of jail. - United States Department of EnergyUnited States Department of EnergyThe United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
. - United States Department of the InteriorUnited States Department of the InteriorThe United States Department of the Interior is the United States federal executive department of the U.S. government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources, and the administration of programs relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native...
. - United States Department of LaborUnited States Department of LaborThe United States Department of Labor is a Cabinet department of the United States government responsible for occupational safety, wage and hour standards, unemployment insurance benefits, re-employment services, and some economic statistics. Many U.S. states also have such departments. The...
. - United States Postal ServiceUnited States Postal ServiceThe United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
for spending over $3.4 million on a Madison Avenue ad campaign to make Americans write more letters to one another. - The White HouseWhite HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
- Reagan's Presidential Inauguration Committee