When we last reviewed School House Rock, we saw that it took a lot of political flunkie talking to get bills through congress into laws. So it goes for getting appropriations through Congress to become funds for local municipalities. Norwalk has, according to the Hour, about $60 million in appropriations working through the system.
“Realistically speaking, nobody knows where it’s going to go,” said Mayor Richard A. Moccia. “Again, I think it boils down to the fact there are good earmarks and there are bad earmarks. If you call it an earmark, if you call it an appropriation, if it’s a bridge to nowhere in Alaska, it’s a bad appropriation. If it’s the $400,000 we received several years ago for the filter project, it’s a good appropriation.”
Moccia returned last week from Washington, where he attended the U.S. Conference of Mayors 76th Winter Meeting. While there, he also met with U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, ID-Conn., and staff from the offices of U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and U.S. Rep. Christopher R. Shays, R-4, to discuss earmarks for Norwalk.
While those lawmakers have been supportive of bringing federal dollars to Connecticut for local projects, many other legislators and President George W. Bush believe such spending is excessive.
Seeking to crack down on the pork barrel practices of Congress, President Bush announce Monday night that he’ll veto any spending bill that doesn’t cut the number and cost of congressional pet projects in half.
Bush also was to issue an executive order today ordering federal agencies to ignore “earmarks” that aren’t explicitly enacted into law, erasing a common practice in which lawmakers’ projects are outlined in nonbinding documents that accompany legislation. The move is aimed at making doubly sure that lawmakers have the opportunity to strike earmarks during floor debates.
The president’s moves come as the practice of earmarking — placing pet projects such as roads, clean water projects, health care centers and grants to local governments in spending bills — is under continued criticism from voters and watchdog groups.“I know that there’s some discussion of cutting earmarks,” said Katherine Pytleski, Norwalk’s grants coordinator. “There was a bridge to nowhere (in Alaska), but we really use (earmarks) for things that are needed. There’s no bridge to nowhere in Norwalk. We really are using earmarks to improve the community.”
The $400,000 cited by Moccia went to install filters in hundreds of storm drains in the city. Between their installation in October 2005 and last September, the filters have prevented 1,200 gallons of oil, 19 tons of trash and 13,530 pounds of other contaminants from entering the Long Island Sound, according to a study.
For 2008-09, Norwalk is seeking $59,160,000 in federal funding to pay for projects ranging from completing construction on the Norwalk Transit District’s Wheels bus service pulse point on Burnell Boulevard ($260,000) to infrastructure improvements related to redevelopment of Wall Street and West Avenue ($15 million).
City officials likely won’t know how those and other earmarks will fare until December when Congress gets nearer to adopting the next federal budget.
Both Shays and Lieberman have pushed for funding for Norwalk, such as dollars to dredge Norwalk Harbor. Phase One of that project is complete.
Lieberman acknowledged Monday that there is talk in Washington of earmarks being eliminated. The senator said he will support appropriations that help residents.
“We know from rumblings inside the White House that there is a chance President Bush may try to eliminate congressionally directed projects from the appropriations process this year,” Lieberman said. “I continue to support worthy requests from towns, cities, and organizations in Connecticut because I know the funding allocated to them improves the well being of Connecticut residents.”
Moccia, while praising the work of Norwalk’s legislative delegation to bring dollars to the city, blames Congress for what he calls “gridlock” over the appropriations process. He said Democrats and Republicans are divided, and divided among themselves, on the role of earmarks.
“It really is probably as bad a gridlock as people think it is. That’s because of not just between the two parties, but between the members of each party, too,” Moccia said. “There is no easy solution to this. I think there has to be institutional accountability by Congress, instead of institutional instability. That is not criticizing Congressman Shays or Sen. Lieberman or Sen. Dodd.”
Inexplicably, President Bush is right about the forcing more accountability out of Congress when it comes to voting on earmarks. Too often these things are crammed into bills that have nothing to do with legislation. The bigger problem– many on Congress don’t actually read the bill they are voting on. The Wall Street Journal via ReadTheBill.org:
Wall Street Journal “Tackling ‘Monster’ Spending Bills”
by Susan Davis, October 30, 2007Here’s what they found: Congress enacted 14 “omnibus” or “minibus” appropriations bills between 1982-2005, with each containing between 2-13 individual spending bills, and most total over 1,000 pages — 13 “could not possibly have been read by a human being before floor debate in Congress,” the report says. While the House has a rule that conference reports must be available for three days before passage, it’s regularly ignored. When combined, House members had about 65 hours total to read 12,113 pages in the 13 bills. The Senate was slightly better with 126 hours to read the same amount.
The report is timely because Congress is in the same jam this year, with House and Senate Democrats eyeing an omnibus spending package because they have yet to send a spending bill to President Bush. Readthebill.org’s report also includes 70 quotes from House members and senators acknowledging that they had no time to read the bills, including this one from Steny Hoyer, who is now the House Majority Leader. “This clearly is not how our appropriations process should work, with this House rolling nine separate appropriations bills into one and giving the Members just a few hours to review it…It is, I judge, at least two feet tall…an extraordinary document,” he said of the 2005 omnibus approved when Republicans controlled Congress.
70 quotes from our congressional flunkies that they voted on something they did not read. And we’re not even getting to ask if they even understood what they are reading!
source:The Hour, Federal funds for city caught up in earmarks debate, By Robert Koch, January 29, 2008
