The Favor Factory A SEATTLE TIMES SPECIAL REPORT Published Oct. 12, Dec. 7, Feb. 8 and Dec. 31, 2008 The project online: seattletimes.com/favorfactory OCTOBER 12, 2008 The Favor Factory | Seattle Times Special Report Earmarks reform is a “sham” CONGRESS STILL HIDING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN PET PROJECTS Congressional ethics reform Copyright 2008 Seattle Times Co. last year included rules BY DAVID HEATH AND CHRISTINE WILLMSEN requiring lawmakers to Seattle Times staff reporters disclose their earmarks. No matter who wins, the next president promises to take back Washington from powerful interests and lobbyists. WHAT Congress disclosed It is the same stirring promise Congress made last year when HAPPENED earmarks worth — rocked by scandal and under new leadership — lawmakers passed $5 billion in the 2008 what they trumpeted as some of the most signifi cant ethics reforms defense bill. in years. WHAT Lawmakers didn’t Key among those reforms: rules reveal $3.5 billion in requiring lawmakers, for the first DIDN’T time, to disclose their earmarks — earmarks they’d HAPPEN federal dollars they were quietly dol- placed in the defense ing out as favors. bill. But time after time, Congress House members failed exploited loopholes or violated those at least 110 times to rules, a Seattle Times investigation has found. An in-depth examination name recipients of WEB EXTRA defense earmarks. of the 2008 defense bill found $8.5 billion in earmarks. Of those, 40 per- Find out who’s Senators failed to list cent — $3.5 billion — were hidden. giving and getting themselves as And Congress broke its pledge • Search our database earmark sponsors at — and President Bush’s challenge for earmarks, campaign least 175 times. — to cut earmarks in half. Lawmak- giving and lobbying. ers cut the dollar amount of defense • See the list of mystery earmarks by about a fourth and the earmarks and help us number by 19 percent. reveal more. The hidden earmarks range from • Find out which $8 million for lighting sold by a fi nan- lawmakers didn’t give cially troubled company in North Car- out earmarks. olina to $588 million for a submarine seattletimes.com/ the administration doesn’t want. favorfactory After months of investigating the $459 billion 2008 defense bill, The Times found: • The hidden $3.5 billion included 155 earmarks, among them the most OCTOBER 12, 2008 costly in the bill. Congress disclosed 2,043 earmarks worth $5 billion. Who gave the most? • The House broke the new rules at least 110 times by failing to disclose Of all companies with 2008 defense earmarks, the employees and who was getting earmarks, making it political-action committees of these companies have given the most diffi cult for the public to judge wheth- to Congress members: er the money is being spent wisely. TO ALL CONGRESS MEMBERS • In at least 175 cases, senators did not list themselves in Senate records Rank Beneficiary Contributions, 2003-'08 as earmark sponsors, appearing more 1 Lockheed Martin $4,430,601 fi scally responsible. But they told a dif- 2 General Electric $3,832,662 ferent story to constituents back home 3 Northrop Grumman $3,234,820 in news releases, claiming credit for 4 General Dynamics $3,145,167 the earmarks and any new jobs. Lawmakers do not face penalties for 5 Boeing $3,051,851 failing to follow these ethics rules. TO WASHINGTON LAWMAKERS “The whole ethics bill was a sham,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, a Republican Rank Beneficiary Contributions, 2003-'08 from South Carolina, after being told 1 Boeing $259,825 of The Times’ fi ndings. 2 General Dynamics $94,500 “It was written to create loopholes, 3 Honeywell International $94,000 to get around any transparency and 4 Northrop Grumman $87,400 our ability to cut out those earmarks. 5 Lockheed Martin $76,850 Neither leadership is committed to signifi cantly changing the earmarking Sources: Seattle Times analysis; Federal Election Commission process.” THE SEATTLE TIMES Complicating matters, lawmakers routinely accept campaign donations from the people asking for earmarks, raising the specter of corruption. The Times found that people at com- Who got the most? panies that benefited from defense Members of Congress who got the most campaign money from earmarks this year gave more than donors at companies with 2008 defense earmarks: $60 million in campaign donations to incumbents in Congress over the past Rank Lawmaker Affiliation Contributions (2003-08) six years. In addition, companies get- 1 Murtha, John P. House, D-PA $1,641,350 ting earmarks in the 2008 defense bill 2 Moran, James P. Jr. House, D-VA $892,499 spent $141 million lobbying Congress last year alone. 3 Visclosky, Peter J. House, D-IN $805,548 “The people who want the earmarks 4 Lewis, Jerry House, R-CA $659,875 are the same people who we count on 5 Specter, Arlen Senate, R-PA $645,663 to raise us money for the campaigns,” 6 Young, C. W. Bill House, R-FL $628,650 DeMint said. “It’s just a little too 7 Hobson, David Lee House, R-OH $574,390 cozy.” 8 Dicks, Norman D. House, D-WA $510,200 Last year, Congress promised to shed light on the secretive process. But 9 Cramer, Robert E 'Bud' Jr. House, D-AL $487,307 the lists of earmarks are still buried in 10 Skelton, Ike House, D-MO $463,260 obscure documents that are diffi cult 34 Murray, Patty Senate, D-WA $286,630 to fi nd and search. Until Congress put 80 Cantwell, Maria Senate, D-WA $193,552 them online a couple of weeks ago, the 182 Larsen, Rick House, D-WA $108,550 House disclosure letters, linking law- 199 Smith, Adam House, D-WA $97,240 makers to companies, were thick vol- umes of paper kept in a cabinet in the 260 Baird, Brian N. House, D-WA $68,800 offices of the House Appropriations 266 Reichert, Dave House, R-WA $67,600 Committee. 269 Hastings, Doc House, R-WA $66,900 When a reporter for the Congressio- 274 Rodgers, Cathy McMorris House, R-WA $64,975 nal Quarterly pointed out how diffi cult 349 Inslee, Jay R. House, D-WA $44,300 it remains to pull all the information 445 McDermott, Jim House, D-WA $22,225 together, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the committee that drafts Sources: Seattle Times analysis; Federal Election Commission THE SEATTLE TIMES the defense bill, had a quick answer: “Tough shit.” The Times spent months compiling this information — including campaign OCTOBER 12, 2008 “The people who want the earmarks are the same people who we count on to raise us money for the campaigns,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. “It’s just a little too cozy.” donations and companies’ lobbying N.C., and even posted solicitations on According to Congress, this spend- efforts — and put it in a searchable its company Web site, asking people ing was not an earmark. Its reform bill database. It can be found on our Web to donate $500 to the lawmakers. The is full of loopholes that allow lawmak- site at seattletimes.com/favorfactory. events raised $10,600 for the two. ers to insert favors and not have to dis- (Lawyers with expertise in cam- close them as earmarks. Big bucks for paign-fi nance laws say it’s illegal for a For example, a Senate report little-known product company to assist in raising campaign describes situations in which no indi- One case in which Congress clearly donations from the public.) vidual senator championed a request broke its disclosure rule involves an Through a spokesman, Dole said but instead it somehow arose through $8 million earmark to buy a “portable that her staff met with the company group consensus. In those cases, the illumination system.” It turned out to but that she did not ask for an ear- add-on was not considered an ear- be for Cyberlux, a tiny lighting compa- mark. mark but a “committee initiative.” ny in Durham, N.C., that is struggling Price serves on the powerful House Under the reforms, Congress uses to survive. Appropriations Committee. His staff- a semantic maneuver to conceal ear- Cyberlux competes against corpo- ers met with Cyberlux and contacted marks. rate giants such as General Electric but the defense subcommittee “to see if The common definition of an ear- advertises that its lights save energy they are favorably inclined to the tech- mark is money that somebody gets and cost less than common household nology, to putting funding in the bill,” from Congress because they cannot bulbs. Despite its efforts, the company said Price’s chief of staff, Jean-Louise get it from a federal agency. Con- barely sells any products to consum- Beard. gress uses a far narrower defi nition: ers. Even so, she said, they didn’t consid- an earmark has to be “primarily at the Cyberlux lost $9 million on sales of er those actions an earmark request. request of a member,” targeted to a only $332,000 for the fi rst six months Cyberlux announced it was seeking specifi c company or location, with no of this year. Since its founding in 2000, $25 million in defense earmarks for competitive bidding. Cyberlux has lost more than $50 mil- 2009 and that it had “submitted this This past spring during budget lion and the company has sunk deeply forecast to its sponsorship in the House season, staffers at the House Appro- in the red. Its stock sells publicly for of Representatives and Senate.” priations Committee toiled round the about a penny. Earlier this year, its clock not vetting the earmarks on their independent auditor said in the com- Military didn’t want merits but trying to decide whether to pany’s fi nancial statement that Cyber- $588 million submarine actually call them earmarks, accord- lux was in danger of failing.