SENATORS GUT EARMARK DISCLOSURE,
STILL TAKE CREDIT FOR CORPORATE PORK
posted by Laura Peterson, 202-546-8500 ext. 114
December 21, 2007
Click here to see the database of releases
Washington lawmakers are not generally shy about taking credit for what they bring home to their districts. That’s why we were so frustrated by the Senate’s failure to pass ethics legislation that would require them to disclose the beneficiaries of their earmarks in all the spending bills, as their colleagues in the House did. Sure enough, just weeks after backroom dealing gutted the disclosure provisions of the ethics bill, Senators were firing off press releases telling constituents which local companies benefited from funds they added to the 2008 defense appropriations legislation.
The results are disturbing if not surprising: 46 Senators disclosed the corporate beneficiaries of their earmarks in press releases on the Department of Defense appropriations bill. Since 20 Senators didn’t have a press release on their website, the number that disclose is likely much higher.
While reading the press releases, we learned that:
- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) secured $87 million for Nevada projects such as a $5 million “Multi-Sensor Detect, See, & Avoid” initiative to prevent air collisions and a $4 million Helicopter Autonomous Landing System, both performed by the Sierra Nevada Corporation in Sparks, NV;
- Arlen Specter (R-PA), who sits on the defense appropriations subcommittee, scored nearly $100 million for earmarks including $6.5 million for Letterkenny Army Depot--the largest employer in Franklin County--to demilitarize munitions, and 3.2 million for Air Products in Lehigh County to provide “oxygen-generating systems;”
- Senate Minority Leader and defense subcommittee member Mitch McConnell (R-KY) added $6.8 million for the Phalanx Next Generation, a defensive weapons system manufactured by Raytheon in Louisville, and $3.2 million for the McConnell Technology Training Center. McConnell has reportedly earmarked more than $40 million to date for the MTTC, an organization operated by Innovative Productivity Inc. of Louisville that provides maintenance support for the Navy.
These releases would suggest that the Senate didn’t have to gut earmark disclosure requirements, since most Senators are comfortable releasing the names of the companies that benefit from their earmarking prowess.
Thanks to Matt Canham for his story in the Salt Lake Tribune about the Utah’s Washington delegation disclosure on defense pork. That where we got the idea to look at this. |
