Yes, they're still pending, and still may cost American taxpayers hundreds of millions to build. However, the two Alaska transportation projects that achieved a sort of iconic status among earmarked congressional pork--the Gravina Bridge and the Knik Arm bridge--might be done in by incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski's loss to Sarah Palin in the gubernatorial primary last Tuesday. Emily Ferry of the Alaska Transportation Priorities Project emailed me a press release from her organization, that notes,
Continue readingOur Earmarks Experiment
Sunlight's largest experiment in the world of citizen journalism unfurled yesterday with a coalitional effort asking citizens to help us explore the world of earmarks in the Labor/HHS bill. While we haven't yet been overwhelmed by the response, we are already pleased by what we've seen. Simply put: people are digging up interesting stuff. Bill Allison will keep up with what's coming into various websites and report to you.
Part of why this effort can be declared a success is that I think we are already getting people to think differently about the earmark process, including folks on the progressive end of the spectrum. I had an interesting reaction from a long-time colleague yesterday when he looked at the list of earmarks. He wrote:
Continue readingPork-hunting goes local
Room 8 has a new post up asking for New Yorkers to try to figure out if any of their earmarks (and they have quite a few, 157 items in the Labor HHS bill) is pork. This seems like perhaps the most productive way to dig into the 1800 plus earmarks -- local groups getting at local representatives when they are at home. Call their offices while your members of Congress are home on recess. Let them know that this matters to you, that you deserve to know, and that while equipment for a new hospital may be a good idea, any decisions made in secrecy like this are not.
Continue readingWe Need Help Exposing Earmarks!
Whether you're a blogger, a curious citizen, a citizen journalist, a muckraker, or a journalist, we need your help. There are more than 1,800 earmarks in the 2007 appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (see the map). That's over 1,800 appropriations that have never been publicly debated -- and probably never will be -- and we don't even know where they came from. An earmark is a line-item that is inserted into a bill to direct funds to a specific project or recipient without any public hearing or review. (Read the Earmarks FAQ.)
Continue readingHow to win contracts and influence Congress
Somewhere in America a lobbyist, or maybe a contractor, is writing a book with that title. Lobbyists, freely seeking contracts with little or no restraint, appear to have perfected a system, with their clients, of winning contracts and gaining influence. TPM Muckraker -- posting about yesterday’s Vanity Fair expose on the seedy world of defense contracts (“a window into Babylon or the last stages of Rome”) -- explained the business model of companies seeking contracts in Washington: “First you get the congressman, then you get the earmarks, and then you get the money.”
Continue readingTowns, Municipalities Hire Lobbyists in Earmark Frenzy:
Raw Story reports that the Sunday New York Times will include an article detailing the extent to which cities, towns, and municipalities are going to secure federal dollars through earmarks.
Since 1998, the number lobbyists for such public entities has doubled, the paper will report. According to the Times, "Most of these new clients had never sought earmarks -- some had never even heard of them -- before someone knocked on their door, essentially offering big pots for a pittance. Others had read in the newspaper about neighbors with lobbyists building bridges or beach walks and felt pressure to keep up with the municipal Joneses."Continue reading
Details in Lewis Case Becoming Clearer:
TPM Muckraker is all over the latest, and future, developments in the [sw: Jerry Lewis] (R-Calif.) investigation. Justin Rood reports that the clients of the lobbying firm in the middle of the scandal, Copeland Lowery, continued to donate to Lewis' campaign committee and PAC "just days after news surfaced of a federal investigation into" Lewis' connection to the firm. All of the contributing clients happen to be defense contractors, likely seeking an earmark or two. Rood asks if any of these contractors may be the next recipient of a subpoena in this widening investigation. (Read More...)
Scandal Firm Failed to Report $2 Million in Fees:
The firm at the center of the [sw: Jerry Lewis] (R-Calif.) scandal apparently failed to report $2 million in lobbying fees, according to TPM Muckraker.
Now a review of the firm's reporting shows that, just weeks before Copeland Lowery's status as a target of the investigation became publicly known, the firm filed more than 90 revised disclosures to Congress, alerting officials that they had misreported income from dozens of clients from 1998 to 2005. Over three-quarters of the corrections disclosed previously unreported income totalling approximately $2 million; others corrected over-reported income of roughly $500,000.Justin Rood points out that the revisions came in only a few key clients. One of those clients is ADCS, the defense contractor at the center of the Duke Cunningham bribery case:
From these four key clients, Copeland Lowery failed to report ... - at least $260,000 from ADCS, the San Diego-based defense contractor owned by accused briber Wilkes; - at least $270,000 from the San Diego-based Foundation for the Improvement of Math and Science Education; - at least $210,000 from the Rochester Institute of Technology; - at least $210,000 from the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD).Lowery's lobbying firm is "in serious legal jeopardy" according to money in politics expert and Washington lawyer Brett Kappell. Rood lays out a possible outcome, "The likely charge -- making a false statement, a felony -- has been used by prosecutors in recent corruption investigations to win plea bargains." Continue reading
Daylight AM:
- According to the San Bernardino Sun, the top technology firm ESRI has received a subpoena in the ongoing investigation into Appropriations Chairman [sw: Jerry Lewis] (R-Calif.) and his ties to Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White, the lobbying firm representing ESRI and numerous municipalities that have received subpoenas. From 2001 to 2006 Lewis "earmarked more than $90 million for ESRI projects that included defense intelligence systems such as database mapping to assist in rebuilding war-torn Iraq." From 2000 to 2005 ESRI paid the Lowery firm $360,000 in fees to lobby Congress.
- TPM Muckraker reports that Bernard Kerik, the first choice to head the Department of Homeland Security for President Bush's second term, will plead guilty to accepting "improper gifts totaling tens of thousands of dollars while he was a city official in the late 1990's".
- The Wall Street Journal profiles the Han Solo of the Congressional Pork Wars, [sw: Jeff Flake] (R-Ariz.). Flake is "a ringer for actor Owen Wilson who crashes not weddings but his own Republican Party" by asking "colleagues to come to the House floor and explain why taxpayers should pay for pet projects in their districts." He has twice targeted Appropriations Chairman [sw: Jerry Lewis] (R-Calif.) -- the Sith Lord if we are to keep with the Star Wars theme -- and even targeted an earmark inserted by none other than the Speaker of the House [sw: Dennis Hastert] (R-Ill.). Flake questions the culture that underlies much of the corrupt behavior in Congress, "What’s just mystifying is the sense of entitlement now: You have the right to have your projects and to ask for it through the process without anyone else knowing about it or being able to challenge it. That’s your inherent right as a member of Congress."
Daylight PM:
- An official at the Interior Department will plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge in connection with the Jack Abramoff investigation. Roger Stillwell was "the desk officer for the Mariana Islands at the U.S. Department of the Interior" and dealt often with Abramoff, who lobbied for the Islands. Stillwell is charged with "[f]ailing to report gifts from a 'prohibited source.'" I'll second Paul Kiel in saying that investigators are most likely starting with a small fish and working their way up. There is certainly a lot of dirt -- and a lot of lawmakers -- involved in the Marianas Islands angle in the web of Abramoff scandals. TPM Muckraker and Think Progress have more.
- Our buddies at Room 8 NY did some digging into the personal finances of [sw: Gary Ackerman] (D-N.Y.) to find that his stock options in the defense contractor Xenonics have skyrocketed over the past four years as the U.S. has been engaged in two wars in Afghanistan and then Iraq. Ackerman purchased stock in Xenonics back in 2002 after the invasion of Afghanistan at a worth of $1,000-$15,000. That stock is now worth between $500,000 and $1,000,000! Since Ackerman's stock purchase and the invasion of Iraq Xenonics has received numerous contracts and multi-million dollar earmarks pushing their stock to higher and higher. Did Ackerman earmark these funds? Well, we don't know because there is no transparency in the process. Perhaps someone should ask.
- Sen. [sw: John McCain] (R-Ariz.) makes his first foray into the blogging world at Porkbusters to assail Congress' use of earmarks and his own party's failure to live up to their ideal of limited government. The conservative blogosphere has picked up on McCain's post. Check out Instapundit, Freeman Hunt, Tim Chapman, and Ankle Biting Pundits. National Journal's Beltway Blogroll also has more. Continue reading
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