Tongue-in-cheek award issued by US Senator William Proxmire
William Proxmire issued the Golden Fleece 168 times for what he deemed wasteful spending
The Golden Fleece Award (1975–1988) was a tongue-in-cheek award given to public officials in the United States for squandering public money. Its name is sardonically taken from the actual Order of the Golden Fleece, a prestigious chivalric award created in the late 15th century. It is a play on the transitive verb fleece, or charging excessively for goods or services.
William Proxmire, a United States Senator who represented the Democratic Party from Wisconsin, issued the award monthly from 1975 until 1988.[2] He issued 168 Golden Fleece Awards.[4] Though some members of the United States House of Representatives asked Proxmire's permission to continue the award, he declined, saying he might continue to issue them as a private citizen.[2] Other organizations patterned their own "Golden Fleece Awards" after Proxmire's.[5][6]Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan federal budget watchdog organization, gave Proxmire their lifetime achievement award in 1999,[4] and revived the Golden Fleece Award in 2000. Proxmire served as an honorary chairman of the organization.[2]
Reception
One "winner", behavioral scientist Ronald Hutchinson, sued Proxmire for $8 million in damages in 1976.[7][8] Proxmire claimed that his statements about Hutchinson's research were protected by the Speech or Debate Clause of the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled, in Hutchinson v. Proxmire,[9] that the protection of speech and debate of lawmakers in the Constitution did not shield Proxmire from liability for defamatory statements made outside of formal congressional proceedings. The case was later settled out of court.[10] Proxmire continued to present the award following the suit.[11]
In 2012 several organizations created the Golden Goose Award, celebrating federally funded scientists doing basic research with benefits to society or humanity.
In his 2014 book Creativity, Inc., Pixar President Ed Catmull wrote of the "chilling effect on research" the Golden Fleece Award exerted. He argued that when thousands of research projects are funded, some have measurable, positive impacts and others don't. It is not possible to predict what the results of every research project will be or whether they will have value. Catmull further argued that failure in research is essential and that fear of failure would distort the way researchers choose projects, which would ultimately impede progress.[12]
I object to this not only because no one—not even the National Science Foundation—can argue that falling in love is a science; not only because I'm sure that even if they spend $84 million or $84 billion they wouldn't get an answer that anyone would believe. I'm also against it because I don't want the answer.
I believe that 200 million other Americans want to leave some things in life a mystery, and right on top of the things we don't want to know is why a man falls in love with a woman and vice versa.
It is widely believed that Proxmire gave the award to a study of the sex life of the screwworm fly, the results of which led scientists to create sterile screwworms, which were released into the wild and eliminated this major cattle parasite from North and Central America, and reduced the cost of beef and dairy products across the globe.[22] However, there is no evidence for this claim in the archives of the award held by the Wisconsin Historical Society.[23] Furthermore, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded research on the sex life of the screwworm fly took place in the 1930s through 1950s,[24] long before the Golden Fleece era of the 1970s and 80s, when Proxmire largely targeted contemporary research. The erroneous claim seems to stem from a speech by a former Director of the National Science Foundation, who stated that Proxmire gave the award to an NSF grant titled "The Sexual Behavior of the Screwworm Fly," and later "freely admitted that the study of the sex life of the screwworm fly had been of major significance to progress in this important field."[25]
National Institute on Drug Abuse (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".[27][28]
Ronald Reagan's 1985 inaugural committee, for spending $15.5 million of taxpayer money on the planned second inauguration of Reagan.[35] (Most of the events could not be held outdoors due to extreme cold.[36]) The outdoor events were cancelled in the interest of safety because the noon temperature was 7 °F (−14 °C) with −25 °F (−32 °C) wind chills, making it the coldest inauguration on record. Frostbite can occur in as little as 30 minutes in these conditions.
^"Proxmire Fleeces Bedford Wall". Logansport Pharos-Tribune. Logansport, Indiana. September 11, 1981. p. 3. Retrieved November 17, 2018 – via newspapers.com.
^Wallace, Amy; Wallechinsky, David; Wallace, Irving, eds. (1983). "15 Winners of the Golden Fleece Award". The People's Almanac Presents the Book of Lists #3. New York: Bantam. pp. 399–402. ISBN978-0553278682. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
