WASHINGTON — So much for trimming the pork.
The practice of decorating legislation with billions of dollars in pet projects and federal contracts is still thriving on Capitol Hill — despite public outrage that helped flip control of Congress two years ago.
More than 11,000 of those “earmarks,” worth nearly $15 billion in all, were slipped into legislation telling the government where to spend taxpayers’ money this year.
An examination of many of those earmarks by The Associated Press and two dozen newspapers participating in a project sponsored by the Associated Press Managing Editors found much greater disclosure since 2006 but no end to what has become ingrained behavior in Congress.
Millions of the dollars support lobbying firms that help companies, universities, local governments and others secure what critics such as Republican presidential candidate John McCain call pork-barrel spending. The law forbids using federal grants to lobby, but lobbyists do charge clients fees that often equal 10 percent of the largesse.
Earmark winners and their lobbyists often reward their benefactors with campaign contributions. For many members of Congress, especially those on the appropriations committees, campaign donations from earmark-seeking lobbyists and corporate executives are the core of their fundraising.
Rules forbid lawmakers from raising campaign funds from congressional offices, but members and their aides sometimes find ways to skirt them.
“I know a bunch of members that if you go in to see them, somewhere in the conversation they somehow say, ‘Well, we were looking through our list of campaign contributors and didn’t happen to see you there,’ ” said Frank Cushing, a lobbyist with the National Group, which lobbies on appropriations bills. “Is there a quid pro quo? No, not directly, but you’d have to be pretty dense not to figure it out.”
Defenders of earmarks note that the Founding Fathers explicitly gave Congress control over spending. And earmarks make up less than 2 percent of the annual spending bills passed each year.
“Representatives can better judge their districts’ needs than some bureaucrat,” Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., wrote her constituents this year.
Critics say too many earmarks go to a few powerful lawmakers such as Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., , who by himself and in concert with others earmarked $176 million in 2008 federal spending.
Most of the 440 members of Congress who are not members of the House or Senate appropriations committees go along in order to get a sliver of the pie, even as many of them cry out for change.
“Initially, with great enthusiasm, you fight for your communities,” said Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., who says he has sworn off earmarks until new reforms are put in place. “But the return is that you have to support the whole process and, therefore, you’re supporting everyone else’s earmarks.”
