Politicos clam up on pork

WASHINGTON -- Leaders in Congress are weighing requests for more than 32,000 hometown projects that lawmakers want placed in government spending bills.

How many of those requests are from Nevada might never be known.

Unlike a few other House members, Reps. Jon Porter and Dean Heller, both R-Nev., and Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., on Thursday declined to make public the local funding earmarks they are seeking from Congress this year.

Likewise, Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., said through spokesmen that they intend to guard their earmark requests.

The lawmakers offered varying reasons. Disclosing their wish lists could put them at a disadvantage to other lawmakers, according to Berkley and Heller.

"I have supported earmark reforms in the past and would support additional earmark disclosure reforms that put every member of Congress on a level playing field," Heller said.

Reid and Ensign said through aides that Nevada entities might get their hopes up, only to be disappointed later in the year if the money doesn't come through.

Porter said through a spokesman that House rules call for the Appropriations Committee to scrutinize his requests, and he "is going to continue to follow the rules."

Elsewhere, 42 House members have disclosed their earmarks or have reported they are requesting none at all, according to an accounting by Citizens Against Government Waste, a watchdog group.

Six senators told the group that they did not request earmarks. One of them was Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is running for president.

"The appropriations process needs to be transparent," said Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., who said he had requested federal funding for 20 projects in his San Diego County district.

The process of seeking and negotiating earmarks into spending bills customarily has been done out of public view. Members of Congress issue news releases to boast of projects they have secured. But many more requests usually are not funded, and those are never disclosed.

But budget conservatives and good government types have focused on the growing number of earmarks -- often derided as "pork barrel" -- in spending bills to complain that congressional spending is wasteful and out of control.

Congress approved a record $29 billion in earmarks last year. In 2005, lawmakers cleared $27.3 billion.

Nevada last year ranked eighth in "pork per capita," according to Citizens Against Government Waste, with $167 million in earmarks identified by the group.

Much of the funding was obtained by Reid, who sat on the Senate Appropriations Committee and who has long argued in favor of congressional prerogatives to direct spending.

With new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., promising "transparency and openness" in budgeting, the House in January amended its internal rules to place new restrictions on earmarks. Lawmakers must attach their names to earmarks in bills plus declare they have no financial interest in the projects.

The Senate, in a bill managed by Reid, passed a similar ethics tightening later that month. It requires senators to disclose more information about earmarks they obtain and makes it easier for projects to be challenged on the Senate floor.

There is no requirement that lawmakers make public their earmark requests, but some have done so voluntarily and some at the request of news organizations and spending watchdogs.

"The secrecy of this process has allowed too many lawmakers to fleece taxpayers and funnel large sums of money to a special few," said Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., who released her list. "After all, sunshine is the best disinfectant."

House lawmakers were required to submit their requests to the House Appropriations Committee by April 27. Senate requests were due to the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 15.

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., House Appropriations Committee chairman, said he received more than 32,000 requests. On Thursday, the committee approved 377 of them worth $153 million in an Interior Department spending bill.

Of more pressing importance to lawmakers, however, is that Obey and Pelosi have issued an edict cutting in half the amount of money devoted to earmarks.

"Many members will be disappointed," said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., chairman of the panel's Interior subcommittee.

Ensign regards his earmark requests as "internal letters for our office purposes," spokesman Tory Mazzola said.

Ensign believes Nevada entities might get their hopes up, or conversely might be disappointed, if they learn what projects he has chosen to endorse or not endorse, Mazzola said.

Ensign, a fiscal conservative, "is a tough judge of earmarks," Mazzola said, backing only ones he would be comfortable defending if they became public.

Reid offered similar reasoning.

"Releasing earmarks before they go through committee can set up government and local entities for disappointment," spokesman Jon Summers said.

"It doesn't do any good to set them up if you don't get everything you ask for," said Summers, who emphasized Reid's involvement in ethics reform.

Berkley fears that lawmakers with "agendas" against earmarks might seize on wish lists if more are made public, Communications Director David Cherry said.

"We have some folks up here who are happy to throw stones without giving any due to the merits of the requests," Cherry said.