Water Carriers
October 8, 2007
Page A18
Everyone in Congress has promised to discipline his spending and earmarking habits. Funny that Members are proving just how watered-down those promises are in a water projects bill headed to President Bush’s desk.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has a core mission: commercial navigation, flood and storm control, restoring some aquatic ecosystems. When Congress got around to authorizing the $4.9 billion in such civil works that the Corps identified, here is what happened: The Senate passed a bill that cost roughly $14 billion, and the House a different bill at $15 billion. Then they got together in conference and compromised — at $23.2 billion.
Congress’s core mission was apparently not only to leave no pork-barrel project on the cutting-room floor, but to destroy the idea of a cutting room. Just about every Member gets his earmark(s). Thus the Water Resources Development Act contains more than 900 special-interest boondoggles like:
• At least $1.8 billion to build seven unnecessary navigation locks on the Upper Mississippi River, a project embroiled for years by corruption and budget overruns.
• Billions for cross-country “environmental infrastructure,” which usually means building a marina or waterfront shopping center. • $105 million to Louisiana’s Port of Iberia, which the Corps estimated to generate 30 cents for every $1 spent before Senator Mary Landrieu demanded a highly dubious recount.
• A multimillion-dollar subsidyfest for wastewater treatment facilities, sewer projects, mine reclamation, beach maintenance and surface transport, none of which fall under the Corps’ jurisdiction.
Even all that wasn’t enough. The conference committee “airdropped” 19 earmarks that were not in the original House or Senate bills. Their appearance added $750 million to the tab, with $685 million of the new pork going to the Santa Ana River Mainstem (total cost: $1.8 billion and counting) in Southern California. The last-minute request was made by California Senator Barbara Boxer, who as chairman of the Environmental and Public Works Committee was responsible for crafting the legislation in the first place.
This airdropping clearly violates the transparency provisions of the Democrats’ recent ethics “reform.” Majority Leader Harry Reid, however, ruled that an “and/or” clause meant that the rules applied only to appropriations, not “authorizations,” so Ms. Boxer got her wish.
All Corps of Engineers authorizations are tossed into the same tub. The Corps has a $38 billion project backlog, so those backed by the most politically powerful Members bob to the top. Congress twice rejected amendments to prioritize the most urgent works.
Mr. Bush will probably veto this monstrosity, but there’s little doubt he’ll be overridden. Most Republicans seem content to go along; the conference report moved out of the House 381-40 and the Senate 81-12. They’re selling out twice. Democrats included GOP pork to ensure an override, weakening the Administration for the fall budget fights.
As for Democrats, they rode into the majority promising a less corrupt Congress. Already they’re poised to blow right past the Republicans’ pre-2006 spending abuses. When the Democrats campaign in 2008 as the party of “fiscal discipline,” taxpayers ought to pelt them with water balloons.
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spencerb
Yes.
That continually appears to be the case…