Earmarks Now More Visible, But is New Rule Full of Holes?

Publication: Harris News Service

Chris Green
October 15, 2007

TOPEKA - The public now receives more information about congressional members' pet projects than ever before.

Yet the debate over earmark spending continues in Congress, with two Kansas representatives standing on different sides.

Long shielded from scrutiny, earmarks in spending bills became easier to track this year because of new transparency rules instituted by Democratic leaders. With a new ethics law, the public can now find out about many of the projects their representatives try to get funded.

But additional transparency hasn't stopped lawmakers from seeking out billions of dollars for home state projects. And some watchdogs argue that the changes haven't gone far enough and that loopholes undermine the new rules.

First District Congressman Jerry Moran, a Hays Republican, said this week that he backs legislation he says would extend openness and scrutiny to even more pieces of legislation that could contain earmarks. Current rules don't allow members to dispute earmarks inserted into non-spending bills, he said.

He's also joining Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a frequent critic of congressional pork-barrel projects, in calling for a halt on new earmarks until a special committee can study ways to improve the process.

"We've just created a system in which we spend too much and aren't doing it to the benefit of taxpayers," Moran said in a telephone interview.

Moran and nearly 200 other members have signed a GOP-led petition that would allow members of Congress from both parties to challenge and debate earmarks in non-spending bills. But the effort needs 218 signatures to proceed.

Democratic leaders, who rode to power partially by blasting earmark-linked GOP scandals, oppose the change, saying the petition is more about scoring political points than transparency.

Second District Congresswoman Nancy Boyda, a Topeka Democrat, is among those who are skeptical about motives behind the effort, a spokesman said.

Boyda was the first of the state's representatives to reveal her earmarks requests but her $100,000 earmark for a prisons museum in Leavenworth County has drawn fire from Flake and an anti-tax hike group.

Republicans have "zero credibility" when it comes to earmarks because they couldn't fix the problem during their 12 years in the majority, Boyda spokesman Thomas Seay said in a written statement.

"Now they're hiding behind claims of earmark reform to introduce a bill that would bog down the House with endless procedural delays," Seay said. "Earmark reform is a serious issue, and it deserves a serious debate - not partisan ploys."

'More disclosure'

New transparency rules appear to have at least partially reduced the glut of earmarks but it's too early to tell whether that will remain true as lawmakers finalize their spending bills later this year, said Bill Allison, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, a government watchdog group.

House members have already crafted spending bills with nearly 6,500 earmarks totaling about $11 billion, far more than the 3,000 in 1996 and far less than the estimated 16,000 in 2005, according to published reports.

Members of the state's delegation have added their own pet projects to the total, according to data compiled by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington, D.C. group that has put earmark information into a public database.

Altogether, the four Kansas House members have their names attached to at least $100 million worth of spending in legislation thus far. The state's two senators are listed as sponsors for at least $125 million in spending directives.

In some cases, each chamber's delegation made identical and lawmakers sometimes joined forces with their peers or simply signed on to president's recommendations.

Fourth District U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee and the defense and interior subcommittees, led the state's lawmakers with earmarks totaling at least $56.5 million, $44.5 million of which went to defense projects.

The delegation's list of projects includes everything from $341,000 for wheat genetic research to $50,000 for public safety equipment in Miami County sheriff's office. One of the largest is a $28.5 million project at Tuttle Creek Lake for dam safety, which is being requested by President Bush.

The public can conduct its own searches of the group's database at www.taxpayer.net. The group has also launched earmarkwatch.org, along with the Sunlight Foundation, to further highlight earmark spending.

Moran said he thinks there's a growing awareness that lawmakers need to change their approach to doing business when it comes to earmarks.

But he said he doesn't see the need to eliminate them entirely, because there's some value in ensuring individual members have some power to direct spending to needy areas of their districts.

"I'm not opposed to earmarks outright," Moran said, "but I am concerned about the magnitude, size, range and amount of the money being spent."

Transparency may be one of the keys to scaling back their marks. Additional openness could prompt lawmakers to cut back as public awareness grows, some critics hope.

But while Congress has opened things up, it's not always easy for watchdogs or the public to track what's happening before earmarks move through the process, Allison said.

"There's a lot more disclosure that we need to have and we need to have it more quickly," Allison said.

Seay said that Boyda has already demonstrated her commitment to transparency by becoming the first Kansas lawmakers to post her earmark requests online. She's also voted to bring "unprecedented" transparency to the process.

"She's going to keep working to make federal government more open and accountable," Seay said.