WASHINGTON • Leave it to senators to create something called the Infrastructure Deauthorization Commission to do a job that they might consider doing themselves.
The Senate is moving toward final passage of the Water Resources Development Act, a multi-billion dollar authorization for construction, flood protection and restoration along America's rivers.
The bill has some questionable features, among changing cost-share formulas so that taxpayers get stuck with paying more for projects like the Olmsted Lock and Dam in Southern Illinois on the Ohio River.
That project is a remarkable 10 years beyond schedule and hundreds of millions over budget, and "federalizing" it as the bill does would cost taxpayers at least another $750 million.
What taxpayer advocates regard as one of the bigger shortcomings in the zeal to pass a water bill is the failure to set out an adequate mechanism to evaluate Army Corps of Engineers projects.
Because of earmarks over the years — now temporarily prohibited in Congress — the corps has a backlog conservatively estimated at $60 billion. The army's civil works arm has not reported in years exactly how many congressional authorized projects are on its books.
To deal with the backlog, the legislation creates the 13-syllable Infrastructure Deauthorization Commission, an entity likened to the BRAC (Base Closure and Realignment Commission) panels tasked with consolidating military installations.
The eight-member commission then would submit its list to the Congress for an up-or-down vote.
For some reason, the legislation limits what the panel can consign into oblivion. It is unable, for instance, to consider projects earmarked after 1996. Nor can it look at projects, even ones languishing for years, if they are more than half-done. Also untouchable are projects with non-federal sponsors regarded as "viable."
"These criteria so narrows the universe so there are virtually no projects would get excluded," said Josh Sewell, an analyst with the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Enter Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., notable in Washington for her anti-earmark crusade since becoming a senator in 2007.
McCaskill is partners with Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., on an amendment that would remove restructions on what the commission could examine.
"We've got billions of dollars in projects that were authorized by the ghosts of earmarks past and we need a process to get rid of any project lacking merit," she said in a statement.
Their amendment could be heard as early as today and would need to overcome objections from appropriators and those in the chamber fond of earmarks.
Written by: Bill Lambrecht, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Original Publication URL: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/bill-lambrecht/mccaskill-tackling-ghosts-of-earmarks-past/article_7afea3c0-26b7-5025-b3c3-a37c2f977c7e.html
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