Des Moines Register
08-20-06
Grousing grows in D.C. about local 'pork' projects
An Arizona lawmaker says an Iowa dairy program that got $229,000 in federal money exemplifies the problem.
By JANE NORMAN
REGISTER WASHINGTON BUREAU
Washington, D.C. - To Mark Hotvedt, it's inconceivable that a barn full of peaceful dairy cows in Calmar, Ia., could provoke a dust-up over "pork" on the floor of the
U.S. House.
"I don't know that there's another arrangement like this in the country," said
Hotvedt, director of the Northeast Iowa Community-Based Dairy Foundation. The nonprofit organization educates aspiring young farmers and provides nonfarmers with a window into how milk makes it to the grocery shelf.
The dairy education program received $229,000 in this year's federal budget - a relatively small amount. But simmering unrest over congressional hometown largesse has put such targeted federal spending, known as earmarks, under increasing scrutiny in Washington.
Rep. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican and one-man wrecking crew when it comes to federal money for local projects, this spring seized upon the dairy money obtained by Rep. Tom Latham, R-Ia., giving it one of his "egregious earmark of the week" citations.
Latham defended it on the House floor, saying, "I don't know what you necessarily have against dairymen in Iowa." House members backed Latham and the dairy money, 325-92.
Yet there's a new edginess over earmarks, stemming in part from the massive publicity over the $231 million Congress doled out for what critics call the "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska - a bridge to an island of 50 residents.
There's also Iowa's own $50 million allocation in 2004 for a rain forest project that has yet to be built, obtained by Republican Sen. Charles Grassley and ridiculed by detractors as a "pork forest."
Earmarks have played a role in congressional scandals this year and emerged as an issue in congressional races.

That includes the 3rd District in central Iowa, where state Sen. Jeff Lamberti, an
Ankeny Republican, is attacking incumbent Democratic Rep. Leonard Boswell of
Des Moines for not moving fast enough to curb spending on earmarks.
Boswell has said repeatedly he's proud of bringing projects home for Iowa. At a recent meeting in Washington of the Greater Des Moines Partnership with members of the delegation, Boswell said that in the 1998 highway bill, there were
1,900 earmarks and Iowa had six projects.
In the 2005 bill, there were 6,300 projects, and Iowa had 21, pointed out Boswell, a member of the House Transportation Committee.
"If there is someone that doesn't want an earmark, give it to me," he declared. "I know what to do with it."
In an interview, Boswell said projects that have helped revitalize downtown Des
Moines, such as the Principal Riverwalk, might have reached completion without federal earmarks, but "it would sure be slowed down a bit."
The criticism also has been reversed, with Iowa Democrats accusing Rep. Jim
Nussle, the GOP candidate for governor, of not doing enough as Budget
Committee chairman to rein in earmarks.
But earmarks for Republicans and Democrats alike from Iowa appear to be most often regarded as a badge of honor.
Both of the state's senators, one a powerful senior member of the Appropriations
Committee and the other a member of the Republican leadership, roll out reams of press releases annually bragging about what they've brought home.
Among examples from this year are $750,000 for Iowa State University on how to reduce wind damage from storms; $3.8 million for renovation and expansion of community centers; and $200,000 for the demolition of an abandoned Swift meatpacking plant in Sioux City.
One memorable year, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., obtained $50 million that could be used to supplement local money for school construction grants called "Harkin
Grants," the only appropriation of its type in the nation.
Aides say that in the past eight years, Harkin has secured $116 million used by the state to leverage repair and modernization of schools in 260 districts.
At the same time, indications are that in the current federal budget, Iowa probably will receive less federal money per capita for projects labeled as pork by a watchdog group than in years past.

Aides said that's probably happened in part because Harkin was unable to obtain any school grants when earmarks were stripped from the labor, health, human services and education appropriations bill. In addition, a huge public project to improve the National Animal Disease Center in Ames has been completed.
Iowa slipped to 37th in the nation in 2006 pork rankings put together by the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste, with $72 million in projects.
The state stood at a heady No. 13 in 2004, with an estimated $168 million in pork.
The number of Iowa pork projects found by the group has grown as well, from 14 in 1996 to more than 100 a decade later. The 2006 batch included such projects as the Pappajohn Education Center in downtown Des Moines, which received
$400,000, and the Hoover Nature Trail near Ely, which got $100,000.
An earmark, in the lingo of the 12 appropriations bills handled every year by
Congress, is specific language directing money to a certain project or district.
Depending on who's talking, it may or may not be seen as "pork," a term used for anything that materializes outside the normal budget process, often without review or discussion and buried deep in the fine print of a bill.
In a report this year, the Congressional Research Service found close to 15,000 earmarks in 2006 appropriations bills. Citizens Against Government Waste said more than 13,000 could be labeled pork.
Even with the anti-pork mood, not to mention a federal budget with little extra room for domestic spending, Iowans regularly clamor for more from members of the Iowa congressional delegation.
Grassley's office logged 600 requests this year, and aides said the numbers rise annually as more local business groups climb on the earmark bandwagon, organizing trips to Washington to ask for help in the face of tight budgets at the state and city level.
Maureen Knightly, communications director for Harkin, said requests number in the hundreds, and probably at least 100 come from the Des Moines area. She said 18 local chambers of commerce have paid calls on Harkin this year.
Several taxpayer and conservative groups and a host of bloggers have zeroed in on earmarks. "The awareness of pork is growing," said Dave Williams, vice president of policy at Citizens Against Government Waste.
But Doug Miller, general manager of the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo, said Citizens Against Government Waste is too fast to label some items as pork.

Members of the congressional delegation directed that $250,000 come out of the
2006 budget to help pay for repairing the aging venue's buildings.
Harkin got the "Mooooving Our Money Award" as one of the group's "oinkers" of
2006 for that appropriation.
Miller said the federal money is helpful but most of the renovation money will come out of local taxpayers' pockets. McElroy Auditorium, which will get new heating and electrical systems, hasn't had a major update since the 1930s, he said.
"We're not putting any gold plating on any of these buildings or anything," Miller said. "I challenge anybody - they can come out here and they will all come to the conclusion this is not a pork-barrel project."
Calls for reform are loud, although it's not clear how much can or will be done.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., long a critic of earmarks, has recently been joined by
Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican. Together they have vowed to challenge every earmark on the floor of the Senate this year.
Coburn, with Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, also is pushing legislation that would create an online public database with an itemized list of all federal spending.
"The hope of our bill is to harness the power of an eager citizenry wanting to know where tax money is spent by arming them with information," said Coburn.
Said Obama: "I think we're all constantly surprised at what shows up after we've voted for a bill."
Reporter Jane Norman can be reached at (202) 906-8137 or at jnorman@dmreg.com
SPECIAL RESEARCH GRANTS
$845,000, protein utilization; $100,000, corn rootworm; $612,000, Midwest agricultural products; $416,000, food chain economic analysis; $1,775,000, Iowa
Biotechnology Consortium; $222,000, Leopold Center Hypoxia Project;
$266,000, livestock waste; $682,000, Midwest Poultry Consortium; $650,000, human nutrition; $465,000, biotechnology test production.
- CONSERVATION: $100,000, Trees Forever program; $432,000, continuation of
Certified Environmental Management Systems for Agriculture, in cooperation with the Iowa Soybean Association; $1.2 million, erosion in the Loess
Hills/Hungry Canyon area; $446,000, cooperative agreement with the University of Northern Iowa.

- AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH, EDUCATION: $241,000, National Center for
Agriculture Safety; $229,000, dairy education; $248,000, Iowa Vitality Center;
$595,000, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development.
- SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION: $1,250,000, North Iowa Area
Community College business incubator; $500,000, Entrepreneurial Venture
Assistance Project, Iowa Department of Economic Development; $400,000,
Pappajohn Higher Education Center, Des Moines; $400,000, New Ventures
Center, Davenport.
- LAW ENFORCEMENT: $1 million, Regional Training Center, Sioux Center;
$50,000, Prescription Drug/Over the Counter Alert System; $300,000, health justice assistance project; $75,000, methamphetamine enforcement and cleanup,
Sioux City; $100,000, law enforcement technology and interoperability grants,
Clinton; $150,000, Howard County Sheriff's Department; $350,000, Regional Law
Enforcement Training Program, Iowa Central Community College; $1.15 million,
Midwest Forensics Resource Center; $150,000, cybercrime program, Iowa
State University; $50,000, Iowa Methamphetamine Demand and Diversion
Reduction; $300,000, anhydrous ammonia Tanks-A-Lock project; $800,000,
Methamphetamine Jail Treatment Project; $1.3 million, Methamphetamine
Clandestine Lab Task Force.
- JUVENILE JUSTICE: $50,000, Creative Visions, Des Moines; $50,000, rehabilitative support for at-risk youth, Urban Dreams, Des Moines; $50,000,
Rock In Prevention, Des Moines; $800,000, Iowa Community Based Juvenile
Intervention Project; $500,000, Iowa Drug-Endangered Children.
- OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH: $1 million, reduction of wind damage from storms; $650,000, Science center for Teaching, Outreach and
Research on Meteorology (STORM), University of Northern Iowa.
- DEFENSE: $750,000, health study, Iowa Army Ammunition Plant.
- ENERGY, WATERSHED AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMS AND
RESEARCH: $800,000, Center for Advanced Bio-based Binders; $500,000,
National Ag-Based Industrial Lubricant Center, University of Northern Iowa;
$750,000, Chariton Biomass Project; $500,000, Biomass Energy Conversion
Project, Iowa State University ; $500,000, National Ag-Based Industrial
Program, University of Iowa; $1 million, Existing Business Enhancement
Program Building, University of Northern Iowa; $700,000, Environmental Science
Center, University of Dubuque; $1.5 million, Iowa Stored Energy Plant Project;
$300,000, research equipment, Coe College; $5 million, Recreational River and
Greenbelt project, Des Moines; $563,000, Missouri River levee system;
$200,000, Clear Lake watershed; $320,000, forest legacy program, Monona;
$500,000, development of environmental technologies for small business outreach, University of Northern Iowa.
- HERITAGE/HISTORIC PRESERVATION: $365,000, Old Capitol museum;
$700,000, America's Agricultural Heritage Partnership; $300,000, downtown historic building renovation, Council Bluffs.
- HOUSING/ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: $200,000, renovation of deteriorated property for low-income housing, Heartland Hill Habitat for Humanity, Bremer
County; $750,000, purchase and rehabilitation of housing for low-income people,

Polk County; $1 million, Main Street Iowa Program for restoration of structures throughout the state, Iowa Department of Economic Development; $300,000,
Lincoln Neighborhood Housing Initiative, Fort Dodge; $300,000, Riverpoint West development, Des Moines; $400,000, acquisition and rehabilitation of Cedar
Valley TechWorks facility, Waterloo; $750,000, Liberty Square redevelopment,
Clinton; $400,000, land acquisition for a technology park, Des Moines; $450,000, redevelopment of southern Cedar Rapids; $450,000, establishment of a service center for Systems Unlimited Inc. to aid disadvantaged families, Iowa City;
$250,000, renovation and construction of facilities, National Cattle Congress,
Waterloo.
- ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: $500,000, water quality project, Storm
Lake; $500,000, wastewater treatment plant construction, Sioux City; $1 million, sanitary sewer interceptor project, Mason City; $800,000, sewer separation project, Davenport; $800,000, sewer separation project, Ottumwa.
- ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: $1.5 million, field maintenance shop addition/alteration, Fort Dodge.
- TRANSPORTATION, MASS TRANSIT AND AVIATION: $350,000, Missouri
Avenue reconstruction, Keokuk; $100,000, Johnson County SEATS paratransit program; $1,575 million, multimodal project, University of Northern Iowa; $1.4 million, statewide bus replacement; $200,000 American Discovery Trail,
Coralville; $800,000, I-235 storm water management project; $3.65 million, apron and runway expansion and various improvements, Ankeny Regional Airport; $3 million, runway extension and rehabilitation, Council Bluffs Municipal Airport; $3.2 million, runway construction, Fairfield Municipal Airport; $600,000, I-235 reconstruction project; $2.975 million, U.S. 61 bypass, Fort Madison; $3 million,
Southeast Connector/Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, Des Moines; $750,000,
Principal Riverwalk, Des Moines; $550,000, glide scope installation; $100,000,
Hoover Nature Trail, Ely; $50,000, Great River Road, scenic byways, Montrose;
$25,000, Great River Road, renovation of Old Fort Madison; $150,000, 10 fixedroute buses; $300,000, Iowa-Illinois Regional Ferry Service; $1 million,
CyRide/Ames Bus Garage facility; $575,000, intermodal facility, Coralville; $1 million, Trade and Transportation Tracking Partnership, Phase II.