Despite a long history of political advocacy and fiscal mismanagement, the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) will get a $22 million budget increase if a spending bill recently passed by the House becomes law.

You might recall that the LSC made the news last year when its inspector general revealed that LSC executives were living large on tax dollars — enjoying chauffer-driven limousine rides around D.C., expensive meals, foreign trips, and a posh office suite in Georgetown. And as retribution for exposing those excesses, the LSC almost fired its inspector general.

Now the agency, a target of fiscal conservatives for decades, is poised to receive a 6.3 percent budget increase — from $327 million in fiscal year 2006 to $349 million in FY 2007.

Though the practice of rewarding mismanagement with more funding is commonplace in Washington, Congress had promised to do things differently this year. The spending bill was supposed to simply continue funding the federal government at 2006 levels.

Unfortunately, it appears that old spending habits are hard to break.