$20 Million Cell Phone Bill

In 2005 alone the Department of Defense spent $20 million dollars on cell phones! Because the money was in an earmark it was not competitively bid on. Qualcomm, a San Diego company, got the $20 million for their CDMA cell phones. Recently Qualcomm chips were banned from all new US cell phones. Executives at Qualcomm have also donated over $29,000 to Senator Dianne Feinstein’s campaign. To put that in context, Halliburton employees have given George Bush a total of only $15,895. Feinstein is on the powerful Appropriations committee that controls earmarks. San Diego Congressman Darrell Issa, who also has received money from Qualcomm, is a strong supporter of CDMA over GSA (both of which are technical formats for cell phones). This really shouldn’t be legal.