Stealth Pork

This is positively breathtaking. The Democrat controlled congress has discovered a new – and even dirtier – way to slip earmarks past public scrutiny. It allows them to shamelessly claim they are cutting earmarks while actually slipping barrels of pork under the public's radar. Kimberley Strassel, writing in the Opinion Journal, has the details of the new Congressional steal pork program. It is very, very ugly.

That put the new House appropriations chief, Wisconsin's David Obey–a spender for our time–in the distasteful position of having to live up to his party's election promises to fix the earmark boondoggle. He begrudgingly promised a "moratorium." And last week, when Mr. Obey celebrated the passage of his $464 billion 2007 spending bill, he bragged that Democrats had fulfilled their promise and "stripped all earmarks from the measure."

"This decision doesn't come without pain," intoned Mr. Obey. "Many worthwhile earmarks are not funded in this measure, but we had to take this step to clear the decks, clean up the process and start over."

The key language here is "not funded in this measure," and it explains why Mr. Obey is still smiling through his pain. Congressional members, led by appropriators and an army of staff, have already figured out a new way to keep their favors in the money, and it might as well be called 1-800-EARMARKS (which unfortunately is already taken). All across Washington, members are at this moment phoning budget officers at federal agencies–Interior, Defense, HUD, you name it–privately demanding that earmarks in previous legislation be fully renewed again this year. There might not be a single official earmark in the 2007 spending bill, but thousands are in the works all the same.

And getting far less scrutiny than before–if that's even possible. Under this new regime, members don't even have to go to the trouble of slipping an earmark into a committee report, where it might later (once the voting is over) come in for criticism. All the profligates need now to keep the money flowing is a quiet office and a cellphone.

Despite a congressional desire to keep this quiet, the evidence of marathon dialing is mounting. Lobbyists, thrilled their clients are still getting earmark handouts, are now publicly crowing about this underground program. Sens. John McCain and Tom Coburn–anti-earmark warriors–sent a letter to the Department of Energy last week wanting to know how that agency was handling the demands. On the same day, DOE chief of staff Jeffrey Kupfer delivered an internal memo to agency officers acknowledging that "offices have begun to receive requests from some Congressional offices, asking that the Department continue to fund programs or activities that received earmarked funds in prior years," and laying out a procedure for handling such orders.

What was that meme before the election? Oh yeah, "culture of corruption". It looks like the Culture of Corruption, v. 2.0 is up and stealthily running. Meet the new boss.

Other Links to this Post

1. Bear Creek Ledger » Stealth Earmarks — February 9, 2007 @ 9:02 pm

2. Blue Crab Boulevard » Lobbying In The Age Of Democratic Control — February 10, 2007 @ 5:49 pm