Since 1994, the Green Scissors Campaign, led by three non-governmental organizations, Friends of the Earth, Taxpayers for Common Sense and U.S. Public Interest Research Group, has been working with the U.S. Congress and various administrations to end environmentally harmful and wasteful spending. Working to breach party lines, the Green Scissors Campaign has helped cut more the $26 billion in environmental wasteful programs from the federal budget.
The Green Scissors Campaign highlights programs for reform in six sectors: agriculture, energy, international and military programs, public lands, transportation and water. Each year between 1999 and 2004 it has published an annual Green Scissors Report, targeting environmentally harmful and wasteful spending in the federal budget. For example, Green Scissors takes credit for helping to reform the royalties that oil companies pay the US federal government for the drilling they do on public lands, so that they better reflect market prices.
In recent years it has shifted its campaign to individual states, starting with California, Maryland and Virginia.
