Earmarks not issue, Berry says of budget
Posted on Monday, May 29, 2006
WASHINGTON - Arkansas' Rep. Marion Berry would like to be known as the king of pork. "Nothing would please me more,"he says.
Pork-barrel spending is the derisive term critics apply to earmarks - Capitol Hill lingo for federal funds set aside for specific projects at the request of individual lawmakers. In the past year, as ethics and lobbying scandals have surfaced on Capitol Hill, the earmarking process has come under scrutiny, and the number of spending requests has dropped.
Berry, a Democrat who sits on the Appropriations Committee, acknowledges that there is more sensitivity about earmarks among his colleagues, who fear being seen as big spenders. But he maintains earmarks have relatively little impact on the budget, compared with the tax cuts Congress has passed.
During the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, member-requested projects received $ 29 billion of the total $ 843 billion budgeted for discre- tionary programs, according to Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington group that advocates cuts in federal spending.
"Earmarks are not the problem,"Berry says.
As a group, the House seems to agree. Attempts to torpedo earmark projects were swatted down last week as the chamber continued passing its 12 appropriations bills at a quick pace. Agriculture, and energy and water, both cleared on lopsided votes. The previous week, bills to fund interior programs and military-construction projects sailed through easily.
The swift passage of the first group of spending bills comes less than a month after the House voted to curtail the influence lobbyists have in the political process and to require members to attach their names to earmarks included in spending bills. A similar measure is before the Senate.
But perusing the earmarks in spending bills that have cleared the House, members' names are nowhere to be seen.
"They're not going to do that until they have to,"says Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste.
Alaska's Republican Rep. Don Young's "bridge to nowhere"is a favorite target of critics. It would have connected Ketchikan, population 8, 000, to Gravina Island, population 50 and home to Ketchikan's airport, at a cost of $ 223 million. Other examples cited by Schatz include $ 500, 000 in funds for the Sparta Teapot Museum in North Carolina and $ 1 million for something called the Waterfree Urinal Conservation Initiative.
"They don't pass the giggle test,"says Pat Toomey, chief executive officer of The Club for Growth, a conservative group that advocates lower taxes and cuts in government spending.
The number of earmark requests received by the House Appropriations Committee dropped from 34, 687 last year to 21, 863 this year. But, experts say, it is too early to tell how many earmarks will eventually survive the full budget process. It is unclear how willing lawmakers will be to shoot down a colleague's request. And, in the past, many earmarks have come into being during the private negotiations in which the Senate and House reconcile the differences in their bills.
Rep. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, took aim at an aquarium for Mystic, Conn., and a low-emission locomotive demonstration project in Juniata, Pa., during debate of the energy and water spending bill. His bid to remove those and other projects was easily defeated.
Berry voted against Flake's amendments, because he trusts members to know the spending needs of their own districts. "I don't have any problem with any of the earmarks I've asked for,"he says. "I would defend them to anybody."
Berry's fiscal 2007 requests include $ 1 million for biomass research at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, $ 500, 000 for operations and maintenance at Osceola Harbor, and $ 300, 000 for ivory-billed woodpecker research.
Some earmark critics say nothing has changed.
"Members of Congress just aren't getting the message that the American people are furious with the total level of spending and the abuse of spending through this earmark process,"says Club for Growth's Toomey, who predicts the continued use of earmarks could have political consequences in November's midterm elections.
"If the moderate wing of the Republican party, together with the appropriators, decides to use their leverage to grow spending even faster, to have even more earmarks, then they will probably increase the likelihood that the Republicans will lose control."
The Senate hasn't started to take up its appropriations bills. In its budgetary framework, the Senate has agreed on total discretionary spending of $ 882 billion, $ 9 billion higher than the total approved by the House.
Some budget watchers predict discord over the Senate's higher figure will prompt the leadership to merge some spending bills into an "omnibus"package.
Omnibus bills, which can run more than 1, 000 pages, are good places to hide pork, according to Ed Lorenzen, policy director at The Concord Coalition, a Washington group that advocates balancing the budget.
"Unfortunately,"he says," those are the vehicles that lead to lots of fiscal shenanigans, including earmarks."
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
