Central Texans in Congress push for earmarks, sometimes out of public view

As long process of bringing home federal dollars gets under way, some local U.S. lawmakers reveal wh

Publication: Austin American-Statesman

Jason Embry
March 30, 2008

WASHINGTON - On the last day that members of the U.S. House could request federal funding for projects in their districts next year, they requested so many that the Web site collecting them could not function properly.

Local lawmakers submitted requests for these projects, known as earmarks, which included money for Austin community health centers, a family life center at Fort Hood and surveillance cameras for the Austin Police Department.

Critics say a major problem with earmarks, which direct federal dollars to specific programs in specific locations, is that lawmakers largely decide how to award them out of public view. House members quietly gather requests for earmarks from their constituents early in the year and then whittle those requests down to their own wish lists in March. Months later, after both the House and Senate have had their say, final spending bills appear.

Earmarks cost about $18 billion, or less than 1 percent of annual federal spending. They've decreased over the past couple of years but remain highly controversial because lawmakers often award them based on who sits on certain committees, such as Appropriations, instead of which parts of the country most need the dollars.

To shed light on how tax dollars get spent, the American-Statesman asked area lawmakers to disclose both the projects their constituents requested and which of those they decided to recommend for funding.

Of the four House members who represent the Austin area, only Reps. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, and John Carter, R-Round Rock, provided lists of their constituents' earmark requests, including those that they denied. Doggett was the only one who included the dollar amounts he was seeking for his projects.

Senators do not have to submit their earmark requests until next month.

But Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, has refused a request from the American-Statesman that, once the earmark deadline passes, she disclose the list of earmarks that she is seeking and the ones she chooses not to seek.

"I try to give highest priority to cities and universities," Hutchison said. "But I am not able to secure every request and don't think it's fair to publicize those projects we are not able to advance."

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he will disclose the requests he forwards to the senators who decide how dollars get spent, but he would not commit to listing all of the projects that Texans ask him to seek. A spokesman said Cornyn would consider it.

House members had to submit their earmark requests to the Appropriations Committee last week.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, provided the American-Statesman with the 51 earmark requests that he submitted to the committee but not the full list of projects sought by his constituents. "Requests are made in confidence, and we want to respect that," he said.

Smith also did not provide the amount of money he's requesting for projects, saying those amounts are subject to change.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, is not requesting any earmarks this year. A list of earmark requests that he has received from his district would highlight local projects that could suffer because of his decision, but he has refused to make that list public. McCaul said he was not aware of the Statesman's request and would discuss it with his staff, but his chief of staff, Greg Hill, later said he would not make those requests public.

"We're not submitting for earmarks, so they're not relevant to the conversation," Hill said.

In prior years when McCaul has requested earmarks, he has made his requests public.

Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation, an open-government group in Washington, said there should be a way for the public to know who is asking Congress for money, just as other government agencies must make public much of the bidding information from groups that seek contracts.

"This is a process that members of Congress spend a tremendous amount of their time and attention on, deciding who gets earmarks and balancing one constituency off the other and deciding who's going to get funded and who isn't," Allison said. "I think the public should be able to judge them on the basis of the decisions they make, and you can't do that when the process is entirely opaque."

Earmark critic Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation, a small-government group, said lawmakers should disclose the earmarks they seek, but he's not as concerned about the requested earmarks that they don't pursue. "I'm more interested in the causes that the lawmaker commits to taking on and requesting taxpayer dollars for," Riedl said.

During this month's congressional recess, McCaul made a series of appearances highlighting earmarks he sponsored last year, such as $243,000 for a math and science center at Huston-Tillotson University.

But McCaul isn't seeking earmarks in next year's budget. Pointing to former Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California, who secured earmarks for a man who was giving him bribes, and Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, who pushed an earmark for a college program bearing his name, McCaul said he's not playing the earmark game until Congress improves the process.

"I think the American people are really tired of the abuses in the system, and they want their elected representatives to stand on principle and fix it," McCaul said.

House Republicans have called for a temporary moratorium on earmarks, although many Republicans are continuing to seek projects until that moratorium becomes law. Earmark spending peaked when Republicans controlled Congress.

McCaul said he isn't swearing off earmarks for good and added that there are other ways to get money to his district, such as through the federal highway bill.

Democrat Larry Joe Doherty, who is running against McCaul this year, takes a similar position, although he said McCaul has changed his stance because he's worried about re-election.

"When I become a member of Congress, I will not request earmarks," Doherty said.

The House Appropriations Committee is divided into 12 subcommittees, and the top Democrat and Republican on the committee and their staffs ultimately decide which projects make it into spending bills. Committees defer to their own members, so those who sit on Appropriations have more luck securing earmarks.

"Let's take energy and water" subcommittees, Doggett said. "Last year, about every time I saw the subcommittee chair, Pete Visclosky, I asked him how my San Marcos River money was coming."

Carter, who sits on the Appropriations Committee, submitted 48 earmark requests this year. He also provided the Statesman with a list of earmark requests that came into his office but that he has not asked colleagues to fund.

Carter said he and his staff spend all year talking with constituents to see which projects will best benefit the folks back home.

"The goal here is to request those projects that provide the greatest benefit to the greatest amount of people," Carter said.

Doggett requested a relatively modest 11 earmarks this year.

After requests come in, Doggett said, he determines which subcommittee might fund them, realizing that he may get only a few projects in each category. New projects may lose out to those that have already begun.

"If I have unfinished business, I'm trying to complete that and not create false expectations that I can submit four or five more projects that may be very worthy but are not likely to get funded unless I cut out projects that I'm already working on," Doggett said. "Where I'm adding new projects, in the main, is where there is substantial local support in matching funds."

Allison, of the Sunlight Foundation, said Congress has taken modest steps in recent years to open the earmark process up to public scrutiny, such as identifying the lawmakers who push for more projects. But he said lawmakers should pull the curtain back even farther, suggesting an online database of all lawmaker requests.