Apparently, even an angry electorate — and dire warnings of a looming fiscal crisis — can’t keep Congress from its big-spending ways. In a last-minute gift to themselves, the Senate is poised to consider a more than trillion-dollar omnibus spending bill (FY 2011 Consolidated Appropriations Act), packed with thousands of earmarks that will cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

Key Facts:

Total Spending: $1.108 Trillion

Total Pages: 1,900

Total Earmarks: Approximately 6,714

Cost of Earmarks: $8.3 billion

Amount of Spending per page: $575.13 million

Funding to Implement New Health Care Law: $1 billion

Notable Earmarks:

$213 million for 174 projects in Massachusetts including:

$600,000 to research the scallop fishing stock in New England

$500,000 for a renovation project at the Original Thayer Library in Braintree

$300,000 to replace a 911 communications tower in Newton

$250,000 to purchase an improved security system at William Diamond Middle School in Lexington

$1 million to plan for an extension of the MBTA’s Green Line.”

$4.96 million for Puget Sound Littoral Environmental Sensing Network

$650,000 for a genetic research center at the University of Kentucky

$10 million to help establish the John P. Murtha Foundation in honor of the late House Member

$8 million for an institute named after the late Sen. Ted Kennedy

$350,000 for cool season legume research

$4.8 million for wood utilization in AK, ID, LA, ME, MI, MN, MS, NC, OR, TN, WV

$307,000 for small fruit research in ID, OR, WA

$165,000 for maple research in Vermont

$40 million for the National Bio and Agro-defense facility in Kansas

$300,000 earmark for a pedestrian solar lighting project in Alexandria, Virginia

$200,000 for renovations and streetscape enhancements in Winsted, Connecticut