Gillibrand releases earmarks list

Congresswoman's Web site posts wish list for federal funding for 72 projects worth $383.3 million

Publication: Albany Times Union

Leigh Hornbeck
April 24, 2008

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Greenport, published a list of projects Wednesday she hopes will be paid for by federal tax dollars.

The earmark, or funding request list, was submitted to the House Appropriations Committee in March. It lists 72 projects worth $383.3 million.

The list ranges from $50,000 for the town of Berlin to study its water system, to $17.5 million to renovate the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, Dutchess County.

Other highlights include:

$700,000 for the Hudson Headwaters Health Network to convert its medical records to electronic records (the health centers received $95,305 for that purpose last year).

$2.5 million to help build a hydropower plant run with wastewater in Malta, to be built by Advanced Energy Conversion LLC.

$244,000 for the Saratoga Springs Police Department to buy a SWAT vehicle and give officers tactical gear.

Gillibrand said she is one of only a handful of Congress members who posts the wish list on her Web site. It's hard to say exactly who else releases one.

"There is no standard procedure for releasing the list because it is not required," said Gabriela Schneider, a spokeswoman for the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington D.C., watch dog group. "Most do it by press release. It's a great step toward transparency, but it's hard to track."

Rep. Mike Honda, D-California, Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tennessee and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, are among those who release their earmark lists.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, posted his request for the 2008 fiscal year but later joined Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, on a crusade against earmarks and said he would not request any for 2009. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, does not disclose her list.

Gillibrand's list last year had 189 projects on it and 32 were at least partially funded for a total of $19.2 million. That included $1.5 million for power line upgrades at the Luther Forest Technology Campus.

The congresswoman scaled down her requests by 60 percent this year.

"Since 1996, the number of congressional earmarks has increased by 1,200 percent, and I felt it was important to lead by example in cutting the number of my own requests," Gillibrand wrote in a statement.

According to Gillibrand's spokeswoman, Rachel McEneny, fulfilling requests that would do the greatest good or fulfill the greatest need was the guiding principle as the congresswoman chose projects. There was no per-county quota; she considered which projects had the best chance of getting funded, McEneny said.

Leigh Hornbeck can be reached at 454-5352 or by e-mail at lhornbeck@timesunion.com.