By Philip Rucker and Paul Kane - Washington Post
The port city of Pascagoula on Mississippis Gulf Coast wants to build a beach promenade with new benches lush landscaping and a lighted pathway for joggers cyclists and dog walkers.
So the municipality of 24000 hired a pair of Washington lobbyists. The city shelled out $40000 a year according to public records to retain Jeffrey Brooks and Wayne Weidie. They are former top aides to Gulf Coast congressmen and frequent donors to Mississippis elected officials.
The lobbyists parlayed their connections and know-how to secure a $900000 earmark for the beach promenade development in the $1.2 trillion spending bill introduced this week in the Senate. The earmark was one of hundreds sponsored by Mississippis two Republican senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker.
While Cochran is among Capitol Hills unabashed spending barons the bill has reignited the debate over earmarks - federal funding for pet projects - in part because of the more delicate situation Wicker faces: After an election in which voters seemed to demand fiscal belt tightening he and dozens of other senators from both parties are now decrying the very earmarks they sponsored earlier in the year. Wicker like many other GOP senators with earmarks in the bill says he will vote against it.
Last month Wicker Mississippis junior senator joined some of his partys leading fiscal hawks including Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.) and John McCain (Ariz.) in a revolt against earmarks. Republican senators agreed during a closed-door meeting to ban them a symbolic and nonbinding effort that they hoped would send a signal that they are serious about curbing federal spending.
Yet Wicker along with Cochran had by then already sponsored earmarks in the spending bill that would fund an airport expansion in Tunica ($1.75 million) new riverwalk lights in Columbus ($300000) improvements to a hiking and biking trail in Hattiesburg ($700000) and improvements to an assortment of bridges highways trails railways and streets across Mississippi.
Cochran and Wicker each have more earmarks in the bill than almost every other senator. Cochran sponsored 263 earmarks worth $522.2 million while Wicker has 223 earmarks worth $415.4 million according to an analysis by Taxpayers for Common Sense a nonpartisan watchdog group.
In total the bill contains more than 6700 earmarks valued at $8.1 billion. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) chairman of the Appropriations Committee has 141 earmarks worth $325 million and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has 42 earmarks worth $86.1 million according to the analysis.
The spending bill also contained earmarks totaling $30.2 million sponsored by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) who swore off earmarks last month.
DeMint is so opposed that he may force Senate clerks to read the entire 1924-page bill a process that could eat up two legislative days to delay its consideration.
Wickers aides said he will not request any earmarks next year. The senator said Wednesday that he will vote against the bill as a first step to change the way business is done in Washington.
Sens. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) who sponsored an estimated $15.7 million and $38.5 million worth of earmarks in the bill came under sharp questioning Wednesday when they staged a news conference to condemn the practice.
Earmarks are a symptom of wasteful Washington spending that the American people have said they want reformed Cornyn told reporters. We agree with them and thats why we will vote against this bill.
Also fueling the public outcry against earmarks is the growing role that lobbyists play in helping municipalities such as Pascagoula secure them. Critics describe a sort of pay-to-play system in which small towns feel pressured into hiring lobbyists to help them pay for major projects in exchange for campaign donations.
Its 40 grand of Pascagoulas tax dollars going to some suits in Washington said Steve Ellis vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. But it makes the whole system go. The idea is you have to have a lobbyist if you want to get an earmark and thats a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It is not clear however that Pascagoula officials felt pressured and Cochran a former chairman of the Appropriations Committee said the system ensures that small communities have access to needed federal money.
When there are individual initiatives that require the attention of Congress we ought to be open to considering them Cochran said in an interview Wednesday.
For Pascagoula which calls itself Mississippis Flagship City the road to attaining its latest earmark started in February. With the help of its lobbyists the city made the case for the promenade a development that received an initial $500000 earmark in last years spending bill.
Beach Boulevard a state road also used as an evacuation route has a shoulder too narrow to walk on safely said Jaci Turner a program manager for the city. The new promenade would be essentially a concrete sidewalk right at the connection between the road and the beach she said.
Pascagoula has been rebuilding its waterfront area since 2005 when Hurricane Katrina damaged it. Former Senate majority leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) lost his beachfront home there during the storm.
There was no beach Lott said.
A city as small as Pascagoula cannot afford to pay for big infrastructure projects on its own Turner said. Its outside the reach of our typical taxation base . . . so with those bigger projects you ask for assistance she said.
But for good-government advocates any system that awards federal money based on political persuasion is flawed. If the country wants to fund promenades then Pascagoula should compete Ellis said. Maybe Pascagoula would get more than $1 million. Or maybe they wouldnt get anything.
