Intrepidly digging beneath the surface, citizen journalist Mrs Panstreppon investigated a trio of seemingly benign earmarks totaling $1,175,00 for something called the Friends of the Congressional Glaucoma Caucus Foundation. First, let me note that she offers helpful tips here, here, here and here on how she did what she did, but first look at what you can find when, like her, you dig beneath the surface...
Continue readingFrank Murkowski and the Power of Inertia
Former three-term Senator and one-term governor Frank Murkowski got an ignominious boot out the door by Alaska Republicans yesterday, losing his gubernatorial reelection bid in the GOP primary – the latest incumbent to bite the dust this election season. For the 73-year-old Murkowski it was the likely end to a political career that started in 1980, when the Fairbanks banker was first elected senator.
I remember that first election quite well, even though I was outside Alaska at the time. (I spent 15 years in Alaska, much of it as a journalist covering politics.)
Continue readingDo Earmark Recipients Hire Lobbyists?
Chuck Simmons of American North Shore Journal picks out the 15 most expensive earmarks, cumulatively costing some $23.5 million. Just for fun, I decided to check the Senate's online lobby registration database to see how many of the 15 had hired Washington lobbyists. Those that do are the Florida Institute of Technology; Cook Children's Medical Center; the parent of Columbus Children's Research Institute; Texas Tech University, home of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center; Mission Healthcare Foundation, the fundraising arm of Mission Hospitals; all six of the seven institutions that comprise the Alliance for NanoHealth; the University of Virginia; Atlantic Health Systems; and Case Western Reserve University. That's eight of the fifteen that have had some Washington presence (nine if you count the Alliance for NanoHealth).
Continue readingAnother Type of Earmarking?
DailyKos diarist SusanG has stirred quite an examination of temporary duty suspensions--essentially, cuts in the amount of tariff collected by the U.S. government on certain items imported into the United States (there's a fairly good description of the practice here, noted by commenter se portland). SusanG writes that Sen. George Allen, R-Va., has sponsored quite a few duty suspensions for small appliances--certain kinds of toaster ovens, juicers, electric can openers and automatic drip coffeemakers. She adds that some people might say describe such bills as an "egregious waste of Senate space when the country faces such problems as war, national security, energy independence and a tanking economy," adding that perhaps Sen. John Kerry is just such a person, an odd choice really, when one considers that among the temporary duty suspensions that Sen. Kerry has offered one finds various types of golf equipment--including driver heads made of titanium or with plasma welded face plates--as well as basketballs, volleyballs, headphones and high performance speakers.
Continue readingLobbying on the Cheap
If you want to keep up with the inside world of lobbying, I can think of no better tour guide than Jeffrey Birnbaum of the Washington Post. Birnbaum has covered Washington lobbying longer than probably anyone in town – most of it while he was Fortune Magazine’s senior Washington writer – and he understands both the mechanics and culture of K Street, the center of Washington’s lobbying community. His 1986 book “Showdown at Gucci Gulch” remains a classic and his K-Street Confidential column appears every other Monday in the Washington Post.
Continue readingPrice of Admission for Earmarks?
One of the things I've recently been thinking about the perniciousness of earmarks is that they bear a striking resemblance to no-bid contracts: organizations getting federal dollars not necessarily because they're the best group to do a job, but because they're more adept at playing the federal funding game than others in the same field. I figured someone might unearth a few examples that might suggest this is going on, and it appears that the ultra-industrious Gur of Room 8 has done just that. He contrasts two charitable organizations (and let's be clear: we assume that both do good work), one of which has been favored with earmarks in H.R. 5647, the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill, and the other which got none. One difference between the two groups?
Continue readingMore Questions Asked About Earmarks
One of the great advantages of tackling the Labor/HHS/Education appropriations bill first is that, while the earmarks are anonymous, the recipients aren't. From figuring out where one of the beneficiaries happens to be, citizen journalists can ask the local representative about the earmark. And that's exactly what a lot people are doing: James Zellmer at Zmetro.com queried Rep. Tammy Baldwin about projects receiving earmarks in her district. SEGM of A Mostly Political View phoned and emailed Rep. Melissa Hart about projects in her district.
Continue readingNew Profiles on Hot Races from CRP
Our friends over at the Center for Responsive Politics have launched a new project on their Capital Eye website featuring up-close profiles of the money in key congressional races. So far they’re highlighting a total of eight contests in Illinois, Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia and Georgia – with more to come in the weeks ahead.
CRP has long been known as the best source on the web for money-and-politics information, but it’s mainly relied on data-heavy profiles that delineate the trends with lists, tables and pie charts. These new profiles put the numbers in context by combining them with old-fashioned reporting on the races.
Continue readingWho Has Put the Secret Hold on Transparency Legislation?
From Porkbusters:
Senators Tom Coburn and Barak Obama have proposed S. 2590, legislation that would create a single website with access to information on nearly all recipients of federal funding. The bill cannot proceed, however, because one or more Senators placed a "secret hold" on it. Who is the secret holder? We want to know, and we want your help finding out. Call your Senator, and ask them to go on the record denying that they placed the hold. Then e-mail Porkbusters and let us know what they said! Senators who issue denials will be removed from the suspect list --- and those who do not, won't!Continue reading
Citizen Journalists Dig Out More on Earmarks
More and more questions are being raised about earmarks proposed in H.R. 5647, the Labor, HHS and education appropriations bill. Marie Carnes, commenting at the IlliniPundit blog, writes,
The only item listed for Springfield is, $300,000 to the “Illinois Primary Health Care Association, for electronic medical records systems.” Continue reading
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