Bringing Home the Bacon
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, April 10–New Hampshire received nearly $100 million in “pork-barrel” spending this year, an increase of $35 million over 2001, a private watchdog group reported yesterday. The spike places New Hampshire 11th in the nation in per capita pork.
“This yearáCongress porked out at record levels,” said Thomas A. Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), the author of the annual Congressional Pig Book. “As the nation pays its taxes this monthá.Americansáshould think about what they’re paying and what they’re getting for their money.”
According to CAGW estimates, it took the federal income tax payments of 2,128,110 households at $9,445 each to cover Congress’s 2002 “pork bill” of $20.1 billion.
The Pig Book, which profiles the 602 “most egregious” examples of pork, includes several appropriations for New Hampshire. They are: $6 million for the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, $3.35 million for the Institute of Politics at St. Anselm’s College, $650,000 for the Mount Washington Technology Village, $500,000 for the Mount Washington Observatory and $230,000 for weather radio transmitters.
The book includes no itemized entries for Massachusetts, which received only $125,000 less than New Hampshire, but ranked 49th in the nation in per capita pork.
According to the CAGW, New Hampshire’s high ranking is due to its delegation: Two of its four Congressmen-Rep.John E. Sununu, R-Bedford, and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-NH–serve on Appropriations Committees. Of the 71 New Hampshire projects included in the 13 appropriations bills, 21 were introduced by the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, on which Gregg is the senior Republican. Sununu’s Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee introduced an additional 11 projects.
In total, 47 of the earmarks originated in committees on which either Gregg or Sununu served. Gregg’s three subcommittees accounted for $58 million of the pork–$45 million of it going to Commerce, State and Judiciary, $9.3 million to the Interior and $4.3 million to Labor, Heath and Human Services, and Education. Sununu’s Veteran’s Affairs, Housing and Urban Development subcommittee got $4.8 million. (see sidebar for top 10 expenditures)
Massachusetts, with its delegation of 12, has only one member on an Appropriations Committee, Rep. John W. Olver, D-1st.
“If a state doesn’t have appropriatorsá.its share [of pork] will be less,” said Kerrie Rezak, a research associate with CAGW. “They could ask for one project, but there is a small chance they could ask for 20 projects.”
But Rep. John F. Tierney, D-Salem, said the fact that Massachusetts is short of Appropriations Committee members hasn’t hurt his district. He said he and other Massachusetts Congressmen are able to work with Olver and other New England appropriators to secure funds for local projects. Last year, Olver helped get nearly $22 million in funding for transportation projects in Massachusetts, including $100,000,000 for the Merrimac Valley Regional Transit Authority.
“We don’t have any complaints, nor do our cities and towns, about the way we’ve been treated by appropriators,” Tierney said. “Would we love to have more? Sure we’d love to have more.”
Critics say “pork”-money inserted into appropriations bills outside the normal appropriations process-enables Senators and Representatives to increase their clout by sending federal money to their home districts.
But one man’s pork is another’s jobs program, and Congressmen reply that the local spending targets critical needs in their states. Sununu, who helped secure $3.5 million for a combined sewer overflow project for Manchester and $1.9 million to create more exhibition space at the Alan B. Shepard Discovery Center, said that all the projects he introduced were vital. He conceded that “an awful lot of spending in the budget is not well used or mismanaged,” but said he did not see any problems with New Hampshire’s priorities.
Asked whether the massive local spending was consistent with the Republican message of fiscal conservatism, he said, “Simply because a member of Congress makes a request for a local priority, it doesn’t mean that the funding isn’t going to be well used or well spent.”
Bass, who does not serve on an Appropriations Committee, said that the New Hamsphire delegation should be congratulated, not excoriated, for bringing home the bacon.
“This is a clear indication of how effective the New Hampshire delegation is and how worthy the projects are that are submitted,” he said. “To say that somehow we should be ashamed of it is absolutely wrong.”
Gregg, who inserted $3.35 million for the Institute of Politics at St. Anselm’s College and $6 million for Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering, did not return calls requesting comment on his add-ons. However, he did issue an unapologetic press release, which read:
“To rephrase the words of Daniel Webster, ‘It is, sir, as I have said, a small state. And yet there are those of us who love it!’ Federal support of local initiatives is important, and I will continue to support and fund worthwhile projects in New Hampshire from my position on the Appropriations Committee here in the U.S. Senate.”
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
