Damn the torpedoes!
Reformers taking aim at shadowy earmarks
Feb. 3, 2006
By BENNETT ROTH
Washington Bureau
Houston Chronicle
Copyright 2006
WASHINGTON - When advocates for restoring the Battleship Texas sought funding last year to save the historic, rusting ship docked in the Houston Ship Channel, they didn't go through cumbersome federal grant procedures.
Instead, they enlisted the help of local members of Congress, who slipped $1.5 million for the ship's renovation into the defense funding bill, making it one of thousands of earmarks, or special projects sought by lawmakers, tagged onto spending bills.
As Congress considers ethics reforms amid a lobbying scandal, critics of the system argue that the rapid growth of earmarks has made it harder to reduce the federal budget deficit while providing a bonanza for lobbyists, who often prod lawmakers to secure projects for their clients.
Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, elected Thursday by House Republicans to serve as majority leader, wants to get rid of them.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has called earmarks "disgraceful," cited the Battleship Texas funding and other earmarks in the defense bill as examples of what he called pork-barrel spending.
Local impact
Others say the earmarks allow lawmakers to better and more quickly respond to their constituent needs.
Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, who requested the earmark for the Battleship Texas, which sits in his district, said that when people "elect representatives, they expect them to have some impact."
Green was approached by the Battleship Texas Foundation, a nonprofit group seeking as much as $20 million to restore the ship, which was commissioned in 1914 and retired in 1948.
Green said he enlisted the help of Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, who sits on the Appropriations Committee, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, and Rep. John Murtha, R-Pa., on the Appropriations Committee.
The funding for the project was announced only after final compromise on defense spending was reached last fall.
Charles Alcorn, chairman of the Battleship Texas Foundation, defended the federal funding for the ship project, which includes removing the ship from the water and building an interpretive center for visitors.
"It's one of our national treasures. We want to preserve it for future generations," he said. The Texas Legislature approved $16 million for the project, and the rest of the money is expected to be raised privately, Alcorn added.
Critics of earmarks say that though some of these projects may be worthwhile, they all avoid the scrutiny to which other programs are subject. Rather, they are attached to spending bills by Appropriations Committee chairmen, who disclose the projects just before lawmakers are asked to vote on the larger bills.
"The last thing on people's minds are these good investments. We are making terrible decisions on where money goes," said Keith Ashdown, head of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a fiscal watchdog group.
Critics cite former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunnningham, R-Calif., who recently pleaded guilty to taking $2.4 million in bribes from two defense contractors in exchange for securing legislative favors in the form of defense spending earmarks.
Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who has refused to make earmarks, noted that under the current procedures, lawmakers were not allowed to challenge the earmarks sought by Cunningham or any other lawmaker.
Flake has proposed a measure requiring that the funding requests be included in original appropriation bills that are debated in committees and on the floor of House and Senate.
President Bush says he would welcome restrictions on earmarks.
But Ron Utt, at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the White House and congressional leaders are seldom inclined to discourage earmarks.
Earmarks often are used as incentives for lawmakers to vote for legislation they might otherwise oppose, Utt said. The lobbying-reform plans offered recently by Senate and House Democrats and House Republicans make no mention of earmarks.
Former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, under whose leadership earmarks proliferated, has defended the practice, saying the highway projects he secured for his district helped spur economic growth.
On the rise
The number of earmarks has exploded from 4,100 totalling about $29 billion in 1994 to 14,000 worth about $52 billion for 2004, according to the Congressional Research Service.
There were 6,376 worth about $24 billion just in a transportation measure approved by Congress last summer that critics derided for being loaded down with pork-barrel projects, including the so-called bridge to nowhere in Ketchikan, Alaska. After the $230 million bridge project received national publicity, lawmakers deleted it from the transportation measure but still awarded the money to the state.
Culberson said there should be more publicity about earmark requests but that any attempts to eliminate them would be "abdicating complete control of spending decisions to unaccountable bureaucrats."
Without earmarks, he said, Houston's Metropolitan Transit Authority's rail project would not have received money for preliminary engineering studies.
Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, who along with Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, secured $15 million in earmarks for the Grand Parkway loop around Houston, said there should be a moratorium on the practice until the budget is balanced.
bennett.roth@chron.com
© 2006 Houston Chronicle: www.chron.com
Feb. 3, 2006
By BENNETT ROTH
Washington Bureau
Houston Chronicle
Copyright 2006
WASHINGTON - When advocates for restoring the Battleship Texas sought funding last year to save the historic, rusting ship docked in the Houston Ship Channel, they didn't go through cumbersome federal grant procedures.
Instead, they enlisted the help of local members of Congress, who slipped $1.5 million for the ship's renovation into the defense funding bill, making it one of thousands of earmarks, or special projects sought by lawmakers, tagged onto spending bills.
As Congress considers ethics reforms amid a lobbying scandal, critics of the system argue that the rapid growth of earmarks has made it harder to reduce the federal budget deficit while providing a bonanza for lobbyists, who often prod lawmakers to secure projects for their clients.
Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, elected Thursday by House Republicans to serve as majority leader, wants to get rid of them.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has called earmarks "disgraceful," cited the Battleship Texas funding and other earmarks in the defense bill as examples of what he called pork-barrel spending.
Local impact
Others say the earmarks allow lawmakers to better and more quickly respond to their constituent needs.
Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, who requested the earmark for the Battleship Texas, which sits in his district, said that when people "elect representatives, they expect them to have some impact."
Green was approached by the Battleship Texas Foundation, a nonprofit group seeking as much as $20 million to restore the ship, which was commissioned in 1914 and retired in 1948.
Green said he enlisted the help of Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, who sits on the Appropriations Committee, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, and Rep. John Murtha, R-Pa., on the Appropriations Committee.
The funding for the project was announced only after final compromise on defense spending was reached last fall.
Charles Alcorn, chairman of the Battleship Texas Foundation, defended the federal funding for the ship project, which includes removing the ship from the water and building an interpretive center for visitors.
"It's one of our national treasures. We want to preserve it for future generations," he said. The Texas Legislature approved $16 million for the project, and the rest of the money is expected to be raised privately, Alcorn added.
Critics of earmarks say that though some of these projects may be worthwhile, they all avoid the scrutiny to which other programs are subject. Rather, they are attached to spending bills by Appropriations Committee chairmen, who disclose the projects just before lawmakers are asked to vote on the larger bills.
"The last thing on people's minds are these good investments. We are making terrible decisions on where money goes," said Keith Ashdown, head of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a fiscal watchdog group.
Critics cite former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunnningham, R-Calif., who recently pleaded guilty to taking $2.4 million in bribes from two defense contractors in exchange for securing legislative favors in the form of defense spending earmarks.
Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who has refused to make earmarks, noted that under the current procedures, lawmakers were not allowed to challenge the earmarks sought by Cunningham or any other lawmaker.
Flake has proposed a measure requiring that the funding requests be included in original appropriation bills that are debated in committees and on the floor of House and Senate.
President Bush says he would welcome restrictions on earmarks.
But Ron Utt, at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the White House and congressional leaders are seldom inclined to discourage earmarks.
Earmarks often are used as incentives for lawmakers to vote for legislation they might otherwise oppose, Utt said. The lobbying-reform plans offered recently by Senate and House Democrats and House Republicans make no mention of earmarks.
Former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, under whose leadership earmarks proliferated, has defended the practice, saying the highway projects he secured for his district helped spur economic growth.
On the rise
The number of earmarks has exploded from 4,100 totalling about $29 billion in 1994 to 14,000 worth about $52 billion for 2004, according to the Congressional Research Service.
There were 6,376 worth about $24 billion just in a transportation measure approved by Congress last summer that critics derided for being loaded down with pork-barrel projects, including the so-called bridge to nowhere in Ketchikan, Alaska. After the $230 million bridge project received national publicity, lawmakers deleted it from the transportation measure but still awarded the money to the state.
Culberson said there should be more publicity about earmark requests but that any attempts to eliminate them would be "abdicating complete control of spending decisions to unaccountable bureaucrats."
Without earmarks, he said, Houston's Metropolitan Transit Authority's rail project would not have received money for preliminary engineering studies.
Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, who along with Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, secured $15 million in earmarks for the Grand Parkway loop around Houston, said there should be a moratorium on the practice until the budget is balanced.
bennett.roth@chron.com
© 2006 Houston Chronicle:
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Friday, February 03, 2006
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