Earmarks involve designating funds in spending legislation that must be used for a very particular purpose. While they can be a useful tool, they can also be a magnet for shady dealings and last-minute surprises. Indicted Naval ace and former Congressman Randy Cunningham's [R-CA] activities revolved around earmarks, for instance. So, too, did the kerfuffle where ABSCAM-scarred Rep. Jack Murtha [D-PA] threatened a legislator who questioned his earmarks. Past US national defense budgets have included everything from renovations to Washington's baseball stadium (based on the standings, a donation to hire players might have been better), to Utah watershed conservation, to the initial funding that got the war-defining Predator UAVs going. It's a mixed bag.
Meanwhile, The question is, how to separate the venal from the vital? One way is to see patterns of contributions from earmark beneficiaries, and The Sunlight Foundation undertook just such an investigation. On the House Armed Services Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, just 3 lawmakers (our old friend chair Jim Moran [D-VA/MBNA], Jack "ABSCAM bribes" Murtha [D-PA] and Pete Visclosky [D-IN] raised an average of $102,600 in campaign contributions in the first six months of 2007 from entities associated with firms they’ve favored with earmarks. The rest of the subcommittee have netted slightly more than $180,000 in total - or about $12,800 each on average, with some shining examples from both parties. The contrast is telling...
Rep. Murtha [D-PA], who narrowly avoided indictment during the 1980s for neither accepting nor refusing offered bribes from FBI ABSCAM investigators, topped both lists at $166 million in earmarks for 30 firms, and $113,050 in contributions from beneficiaries. Subcommittee chair Moran [D-VA] barely made the earmark top 10 with $41 million worth of earmarks to 27 firms, but he came second in political contributions from beneficiaries at $99,000. Rep. Visclosky [D-IN] received $95,000 from the 22 companies for whom he sponsored earmarks, to take third place.
Contrast with Rep. Jack Kingston [R-GA], who came in 5th for sponsored earmarks at $44 million for 12 companies, $3 million more than Rep. Moran. He received just $6,000 from those firms, their employees, and PACs affiliated with them. Rep. Nancy Kaptur [D-OH] also doled out $44 million in earmarks, but her 18 companies and their affiliates donated just $4,500 to her coffers.
Nor is the discrepancy just a matter of influence. Rep. David Obey [D-WI] is a very influential Washington figure, as head of the House Appropriations Committee, and he sponsored $50 million in defense-related earmarks. In return, his contributions from those beneficiaries and their affiliated sources amounted to just $2,000.
Read the full set of findings from the Sunlight Foundation.
The non-partisan Sunlight Foundation, in in collaboration with Taxpayers for Common Sense, recently gave people the ability to see earmark beneficiaries overlaid on a Google Earth map, linked to additional data concerning each one.
“Democrats intend to lead the most open. the most honest and the most ethical Congress in history." -Nancy Pelosi.
What the Republicans need to do is create a contract with America-style push for earmark reform as the centerpiece of the 2008 congressional campaign. It must be specific and verifiable. It should be based on full disclosure (easy access to a catalog of earmarks for each bill), public sponsorship, and no last minute conference committee add-ons.
Earmarks can serve a good purpose. If so, there is no reason not to expose them to the light of day.
If the Republican leadership balks, let it be done by others.
Works for me.
Couple of things -
In terms of waste and corruption, what the Dems are doing now, doesn't hold a candle to the Repub's reign of 2001-2006.
Secondly, if you want to really look at waste and corruption, the dems are doing a good job of exposing this. For example, yesterday's hearing showing Krongard, where he is running interference for Blackwater, Dyncorp, rather than investigating their possible misallocations of funds (which is his job as Inspector General).