Senate refuses to strip billions in earmarks
By Bruce Alpert
Times-Picayune
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday rejected a proposal by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that would have stripped almost $7.7 billion in congressional earmarks, including $332 million for Louisiana projects, from a catch-all spending bill.
McCain argued that in a period of growing deficits and major economic problems, now is not the time to spend on wasteful projects inserted at the request of congressional members.
But his amendment was rejected, 54-32, setting the stage for Senate approval of the $410 billion spending package, including earmarks, later this week. The House last week passed the bill, which combines spending from a dozen bills for the remainder of the 2009 fiscal year into a single measure.
Among the earmarks McCain cited as being "without justification" is $6.6 million for continued work by the Formosan Subterranean Termites Research Center in New Orleans.
"We'd welcome Sen. McCain to visit us," said research director Alan Lax, who said the center is making advances on a pest that causes major damage in the New Orleans area and communities elsewhere in the United States.
According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, Louisiana's two senators, Democrat Mary Landrieu and Republican David Vitter, rank fourth and sixth, respectively, among the 100 senators in landing earmarks for their states. Landrieu, mostly working in tandem with Vitter, secured $332 million for 177 projects, while Vitter, mostly through joint requests with Landrieu, brought in $249 million for 142 projects.
Steve Ellis, vice president of the group, said the large amount of earmarks reflects Landrieu's growing clout on the Senate Appropriations Committee and the state's reliance, especially since Hurricane Katrina, on water projects by the Army Corps of Engineers that represent a large portion of the earmarks. If earmarks for the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security, agencies that were financed last year, had been included, Landrieu and Vitter would have slipped much lower in the earmark rankings, he said.
Landrieu, who has supported earmark reform and greater transparency, defended the financing she helped secure.
"I advocate for these and other Louisiana projects because they are important to the people and communities in my state," Landrieu said. "There will always be a need to direct appropriations dollars based on the reality on the ground."
Vitter, who said he remains dedicated to fiscal restraint, also defended his Louisiana earmarks.
"I am proud to stand by my specific funding requests for critical transportation, law enforcement and hurricane recovery needs," Vitter said. "These represent serious Louisiana needs, which have not been met even as Congress has passed trillion dollar spending and bailout bills."
The Louisiana water projects in the bill include $8.6 million for Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystems Restoration projects, $5.7 million for Morganza to the Gulf hurricane protection, $16.5 million for maintenance and operations of the Gulf Coast Intracoastal Waterway, $1.2 million for the Houma Navigation Canal, $2.3 million for the Bonnet Carre diversion project and $957,000 for the Industrial Canal lock project.
That project is blocked by court order pending completion of an environmental impact statement, and Landrieu's office said the money would help complete that effort.
Still, Darryl Malek-Wiley of the Louisiana chapter of the Sierra Club said opponents of the $1.3 billion lock replacement worry the impact statement won't reflect serious environmental concerns about the massive project. Malek-Wiley questions why Louisiana lawmakers, given all the needs for wetlands restoration after Hurricane Katrina, continue to support a project that will divert badly needed federal dollars.
In urging his colleagues and President Barack Obama, who defeated him in the 2008 presidential race, to drop the earmarks from the giant spending bill, McCain said the bill contains too much waste.
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