One of the first things I do when I'm investigating something is to collect--and, of course, to read--as many relevant documents as I can. Establishing a paper trail is a useful exercise for any number of reasons, not least because it gives you a sense of the chronology, and understanding of the issues involved, leads on who to ask for more information, and government agencies put out reams of reports and documents on their work. The "Reoriented Express" -- the effort to move a stretch of railrod track owned by CSX from its current position, somewhere between a quarter and a half mile from the beaches of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, to an inland position -- has generated its share of paper. There was a 1995 report prepared for the Gulf Regional Planning Commission, followed by a report and Web site set up by the Gulf Coast Railroad Relocation Project. That latter report was the first to note the prohibitive price tag for moving the railroad inland; it offered rough cost estimates for three different inland routes:

The test alignment within Corridor 1 has a unit cost of $36.0 million per mile, and a total cost of $2,683,695,296.

The test alignment within Corridor 2 has a unit cost of $22.8 million per mile and a total cost of $1,804,661,425.

The test alignment within Corridor 3 has a unit cost of $22.8 million per mile and a total cost of $2,437,212,170.

Sorry for the title of this post--I was looking for a play on "the devil is in the details," (devil in the digest? Satan in the summaries?), and this one is hardly satisfactory. Buried at the bottom of a column in today's Washington Post was a shorter version of this item:

Senator Asks Navy to Aid Shipyards Hit by Katrina

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) is pressing the Navy to pay for hurricane damage to Northrop Grumman Corp. shipyards in his home state that the firm's insurer won't cover.

The Senate Appropriations Committee, which Cochran chairs, added language to an emergency spending bill that could force the Navy -- against its wishes -- to give the company, the service's No. 1 shipbuilder, as much as $500 million.

The Navy says it is negotiating with Northrop on payment of some damage costs. The emergency spending request that the House approved directs the Navy not to pay costs that insurance may cover.

Northrop is suing Factory Mutual Insurance Co. of Johnston, R.I., for denying claims to its shipyards in Pascagoula, Miss., but says it needs the money now.

Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman employs 10,000 workers at its Ingalls unit in Pascagoula.

There's a lot of interesting information over at Porkbusters (just keep scrolling) on the $700 million earmark that Trent Lott inserted in an emergency appropriations bill to relocate a stretch of coast-hugging CSX rail track inland (the original AP story describing it is here). N.Z. Bear links to some photos that Ed Frank of Americans for Prosperity took of a small section of track and the surrounding (Katrina flattened) architecture. And Alasandra Alawine, a local resident, has offered a summary of what she's gleaned of the project's history, origins and shortcomings. An opponent of moving the railroad, she also blogs at MS Gulf Coast.

Last week the Senate passed a lobbying and ethics reform bill that included reforms to the earmarking process that would require nonfederal earmarks to be made public 24 hours before a vote allow members to challenge any nonfederal earmark. The Kansas City Star notes that, “A mammoth loophole remains in that the restrictions would apply only to spending on ‘nonfederal’ projects: ones for local or state government or other nonfederal administrators, such as a museum or Indian tribe. Earmarks for federal agencies would not be affected.” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who voted against the reform bill, is unimpressed by the earmarking reform: “We haven’t addressed the issue of earmarks, which has bred the lobbyists which has bred corruption. Earmarking is the genesis of all these egregious abuses.” McCain did state that there will be more opportunities for the Congress to enact more serious reform, “The good news is there will be more indictments, and I think we will be revisiting this issue, if not this year, the next year.”

The Washington Post delves into the world of Congressional earmarking where it is completely ethical for lawmakers to suggest that groups hire lobbyists and the lobbyists, after winning contracts for their clients, donate money to the lawmaker’s campaign fund. One group, Students for Free Enterprise, talked to Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) about getting federal funding for their organization, which included a student exchange program. Blunt suggested that they hire a lobbyist, so they hired Blunt’s former chief of staff Gregg Hartley. The group paid Hartley $80,000 and won $750,000 to “expand their headquarters” and $250,000 for the student exchange program. Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) suggested some lobbying firms to a defense contractor back in 2001. This year the company received a $1.5 million earmark and Reynolds received $6,000 from the lobbying firm he suggested that they hire. The article is full of similar stories of lawmakers, including Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) and Vern Ehlers (R-MI), suggesting lobbyists, writing earmarks, and receiving campaign contributions.