Pork becomes 'earmarks' — 11,000 of them

A few caught in controversies
In recent years, a half dozen lawmakers have come under Justice Department scrutiny over earmarks. Former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., sits in a federal prison for pressuring Pentagon officials to award contracts to people who gave him more than $2.4 million in bribes.

Congress has asked the Justice Department to investigate Alaska GOP Rep. Don Young's $10 million earmark for a Florida highway interchange sought by a developer who gave him campaign contributions. Former Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., is embroiled in an investigation of earmarks for clients of lobbyist Bill Lowery, a former GOP congressman, who also have been generous campaign donors to Lewis.

Once limited to the most senior and powerful lawmakers, or those on the Appropriations and Transportation committees, earmarking pet projects and grants mushroomed after Republicans took over Congress in 1995.

The new speaker then, Newt Gingrich of Georgia, saw earmarks as a way to help endangered Republicans keep their seats and to reward lawmakers loyal to GOP leaders.

Estimates vary, but earmarks went from more than 1,300 projects worth nearly $8 billion in 1994 to a peak of nearly 14,000 projects worth more than $27 billion in 2005, according Citizens Against Government Waste, a watchdog group that opposes the practice.

Rep. Jim Walsh, R-N.Y., contrasts today's earmarking culture to what existed before that. Most of the pet projects went to a small clique of spending barons headed by Appropriations chairmen like the late Rep. Jamie Whitten, D-Miss., who used to call up Cabinet officials to order up earmarks.

"We democratized it," Walsh said. "We basically said, 'We're going to make this available to all the members.'"

Bush battle began last year
But demand for earmarks skyrocketed, and more and more lobbying firms sought to buy in.

Bush's battle against earmarks began in earnest only after Democrats retook control of Congress last year. Now, rather than deal with him, Democrats are looking to deliver an earmark-laden, catchall spending bill to his successor early next year. McCain has already promised a veto. Obama has said he would force cuts.

Democrats say they are cutting earmarks by more than 40 percent below the 2006 budget bills passed when Republicans ran Congress. As important, they say, are House and Senate reforms requiring sponsors of earmarks to disclose them. That's made it easier for watchdog groups, reporters and the public to track the flow of lobbying influence and money. A Web site run by Taxpayers for Common Sense details earmarks, and one run by the Center for Responsive Politics tracks lobby registrations and campaign contributions.

Using those tools, the Courier Post of Cherry Hill, N.J., discovered the case of Sierra Monolothics, a small California technology company. It began seeking earmarks a few years ago, and its executive chairman and co-founder, Charles Harper, began making political contributions. Of the $12,500 he gave in the past three years, more than half went to the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to federal records.

Since September 2006, $2,000 also went to Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., a senior House Armed Services Committee member who helped secure an $800,000 earmark for the company last year.

"Relationships have to be developed at some point and one of the only ways to do it is to go to fundraisers," Harper told the Courier Post. "You get a few minutes to chat with the congressmen or whoever and get them to understand what you're doing. It does help somewhat, to be honest with you."

Things may be changing. This year, freshman Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., gave back about $14,000 in contributions from people who had requested earmarks. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, told the AP that starting next year he's going to stop asking for earmarks benefiting private companies.

Few, however, expect the pay-to-play system to shut down.

"Hiring a lobbyist to try to get you an earmark is a pretty good investment, because you can get a 10-, 20-, 30-fold return without frankly all that much work," said Anthony Nownes, a political scientist at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. "It's a such a win-win situation for everybody. The legislator gets to tell his or her constituent that he or she quite literally brought home the bacon, the lobbyist gets to tell his or her client that they did the same thing, and the constituents get all the goodies."

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is the result of collaboration between The Associated Press and the Associated Press Managing Editors association. In March, APME announced plans for a national project to examine special spending requests members of Congress insert in federal appropriations bills to benefit local interests. In partnership with the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation and Taxpayers for Common Sense, APME trained hundreds of reporters around the country on how to find, analyze and report on the requests, known as earmarks. Many of their newspapers are publishing stories this weekend on local earmarks to coincide with this national overview from the AP. More than two dozen newspapers contributed to AP’s coverage.

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