Florida Trend Magazine: Earmarks: Bringing Home the Bacon

Earmarks: Bringing Home the Bacon
By Amy Keller - 12/1/2008


Alaka’i Consulting and Engineering develops remote sensing technology to help detect trace molecules found in explosives and improvised explosive devices. Headquartered in Hawaii, it opened an office in Largo in 2006 and since then has tripled its revenue and grown its operation there from two to 12 employees.

Recently, the U.S. Army gave the company $1 million to work on its advanced explosives detection program. U.S. Rep. Bill Young (R) of Pinellas County and two congressmen from Hawaii simply slipped the $1 million for Alaka’i into the Army’s budget via the practice known as “earmarking” — no need for competitive bidding.

Alaka’i President Ed Dottery points out that the company gets five times as much money through competitive bidding and that the $1 million provided a “very timely boost.” Without that assistance, “it surely would have taken twice that long to get our potentially lifesaving technology into the hands of war fighters.”

Earmarked projects aren’t necessarily unworthy. Alaka’i’s IED detection system, if perfected, could save American soldiers’ lives. Florida colleges and universities use earmarks to fund cutting-edge research. Dozens of Florida cities and counties, meanwhile, rely on earmarks to pay for improvements to their wastewater infrastructure, roads and public transit systems.

The practice is controversial, however, because it blatantly end-runs Congress’ budgetary review process. No committees review or prioritize earmarked appropriations. There’s no debate and no input from the executive branch agencies that will administer the funding. As with Alaka’i’s $1 million, money for specific projects, private companies, non-profit groups or state and local governments is simply slipped into larger spending bills.

Often, lawmakers tack on the earmarks at the last minute at the behest of lobbyists hired by the companies or local governments. Earlier this year, Alaka’i hired Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm Van Scoyoc Associates, where two former Young aides now work, to help it get more federal funding. Alaka’i has paid the firm $90,000 since January, federal lobbying records show.

Not surprisingly, many of the employees and political action committees of companies that get earmarks contribute to the campaigns of the lawmakers who sponsor the earmarks, creating a pay-to-play culture on Capitol Hill.

And while earmarking accounts for less than half of 1% of the annual federal budget, the spending isn’t inconsequential. Young and other lawmakers slipped a total of $18.3 billion worth of projects into 2008 spending bills, according to a tally by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-partisan group that works to eliminate wasteful government spending. Florida raked in about $477 million of those earmark dollars — about 2.6% of the national total.

Next page: The article continues, along with charts on Florida's Top Earmarkers.



Politicians don’t distinguish between earmarks and other appropriations when touting the money they deliver to their districts, of course. In recent press releases, Sarasota Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan, for instance, hailed the more than $17 million he has already scored for local projects in the 2009 budget. Those dollars include plenty of earmarked goodies, like $7.6 million for a dredging project at Wares Creek to help reduce flooding in a Bradenton neighborhood, $1.6 million for a public safety center in Sarasota County and enhancements to the county’s 911 system and $1 million for a renewable/alternative energy center in Sarasota County. Buchanan also secured through earmarks $157,000 for a beach renourishment project at Lido Key, $200,000 for a voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) emergency notification system at Manatee Community College and $200,000 for a police cruiser in-car video system for Bradenton.

Earmarking has received heightened scrutiny after scandals involving federal lawmakers and now-incarcerated lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who famously referred to the Appropriations Committee as an earmark “favor factory.” Earlier this year, the U.S. Senate asked the Justice Department to investigate a 2005 earmark orchestrated by Alaska Rep. Don Young (R) for a $10-million study about building an I-75 interchange at Coconut Road in Naples that would have benefited one of Young’s campaign contributors, Florida developer Daniel Aronoff.

Congress added some sunshine to the earmarking process in 2007 when it adopted rules requiring that each spending bill be accompanied by a list of all earmarks. The rules also require disclosure of each earmark’s congressional sponsor, the name and address of the recipient and the intended location of the earmark. Taxpayers for Common Sense used the disclosures to compile a database with detailed information on all of Congress’ earmarks. Floridas Top Earmarkers (2008)
Lawmaker Solo Earmarks Earmarks with Other Lawmakers Total
Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R) $103,840,000 $65,187,000 $169,027,000
Rep. Allen Boyd (D) 36,871,000 46,293,500 83,164,500
Sen. Bill Nelson (D) 28,169,700 $132,981,050 $161,150,750
Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R) 11,008,800 26,983,500 37,992,300
Sen. Mel Martinez (R) 9,808,000 118,402,050 128,210,050
Rep. Kathy Castor (D) 9,015,800 10,836,000 19,851,800
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D) 7,308,000 10,594,100 17,902,100
Rep. Adam Putnam (R) 7,086,000 8,866,000 15,952,000
Rep. John Mica (R) 5,180,000 11,808,100 16,988,100
Rep. Tim Mahoney* (D) 5,102,400 15,776,200 20,878,600
Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R) 4,833,000 1,643,000 6,476,000
Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R) 4,707,600 13,085,000 17,792,600
Rep. Vern Buchanan (R) 4,420,000 10,665,500 15,085,500
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R) 4,355,000 19,305,000 23,660,000
Rep. Corrine Brown (D) 4,335,700 36,448,700 40,784,400
Rep. Ric Keller* (R) 4,299,000 4,813,100 9,112,100
Rep. Ron Klein (D) 3,935,500 9,490,500 13,426,000
Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R) 3,717,500 7,328,500 11,046,000
Rep. Kendrick Meek (D) 3,697,000 10,082,500 13,779,500
Rep. Dave Weldon** (R) 3,522,000 8,969,800 12,491,800
Rep. Tom Feeney* (R) 3,245,000 7,437,000 10,682,000
Rep. Connie Mack (R) 2,677,500 4,015,500 6,693,000
Rep. Alcee Hastings (D) 2,623,500 11,027,500 13,651,000
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R) 2,366,000 2,893,500 5,259,500
Rep. Robert Wexler (D) 1,952,000 8,624,000 10,576,000
Rep. Jeff Miller (R) 1,743,000 11,946,500 13,689,500
Rep. Cliff Stearns (R) 1,631,000 33,249,100 34,880,100
*Defeated in 2008 election
**Retired in 2008
Source: Taxpayers for Common Sense


Next page: More charts on earmarks for Florida's colleges and universities.


Higher-Ed Largesse

Lawmakers funneled earmarks for 2,300 projects worth $2.25 billion to 920 colleges and universities across the country in 2008 — a 25% increase over 2003, according to an analysis by the Chronicle for Higher Education. Florida colleges and universities raked in more than $111.5 million in federal earmark money in the 2008 fiscal year for everything from library upgrades to manufacturing training programs. A sample of projects at various Florida institutions:

School Earmark Sponsor Project Amount Spent on Federal Lobbying (2007)
St. Petersburg College $2.4 million Rep. Bill Young (R) National Terrorism
Preparedness Institute Less than $10,000
Saint Leo University $1.2 million Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R) Continuing education through distance learning Less than $10,000
Florida Gulf Coast University $500,000 Rep. Kendrick Meek (D)
Develop and test environmentally safe biocides for bio-defense $60,000
Miami Dade College $343,000 Sen. Mel Martinez (R) Cuban American Historical Museum $160,000
New College of Florida $215,000 Rep. Vern Buchanan (R) and Sen. Bill Nelson (D) Funding for a public archaeology laboratory, including purchase of equipment $35,000*
Florida Southern College $196,000 Rep. Adam Putnam (R) Construction of a library to house historic documents of Frank Lloyd Wright None reported
Florida Memorial University $162,000 Sen. Bill Nelson (D) Upgrades to the Nathan W. Collier Library $35,000
* New College of Florida Research Foundation


School Earmark*
University of South Florida at Tampa $22.9 million
University of Miami 12.2 million
University of Florida 10.9 million
St. Petersburg College 6.2 million
Florida State University 5.4 million
Florida International University 4.8 million
University of North Florida 3.7 million
Florida Gulf Coast University 2.5 million
Florida Institute of Technology 2.4 million
Eckerd College 2.3 million
University of Central Florida 1.8 million
New College of Florida 1.7 million
Florida Atlantic University 1.6 million
Florida Community College at Jacksonville 1.6 million
Saint Leo University 1.2 million
Tallahassee Community College 1.2 million
St. Thomas University 1 million
Florida A&M University 800,000
School Earmark*
Florida Southern College $800,000
University of West Florida 800,000
Barry University 600,000
Jacksonville University 500,000
Miami Dade College 500,000
Stetson University 500,000
Broward College 300,000
North Florida Community College 300,000
Palm Beach Community College 300,000
Polk College 300,000
Florida Memorial University 200,000
Bethune-Cookman University 100,000
Central Florida Community College 100,000
Edison College 100,000
Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences 100,000
Indian River State College 100,000
Lake City Community College 100,000
* Does not include shared projects
Sources: Chronicle for Higher Education, Senate Office of Public Records


Next page: Article on Rep. Bill Young (R), and a chart of his defense-related earmarks.



King of Earmarks

In 2008, Rep. Bill Young (R), the 37-year veteran of the House of Representatives from Florida’s 10th congressional district in Pinellas County, inserted more earmarked dollars into spending bills than any other member of Florida’s congressional delegation and more than all but two other members of Congress. Young doled out close to $104 million in earmarks in Florida for the current spending year, with nearly 90% of the money going to the Tampa Bay area. He sponsored another $65 million with other lawmakers.

How does Young manage to bring home so much bacon? As the ranking minority member of the powerful House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, Young plays a key role in deciding how billions of Pentagon dollars are spent each year.

Not surprisingly, companies in the Tampa Bay region have received a significant chunk of federal money to work on missile technology, navigation technology, bio-terrorism detection programs and other military-related projects. ATK Corp. of Clearwater, for instance, received $4 million for a project related to its “AN/AAR-47” missile warning system. SRI International in St. Petersburg received $1 million to work on “underwater acoustic imaging for maritime domain awareness.”

Rep. Bill Young's Defense-related Earmarks:
Recipient Amount Project Description
AAR Composites (Clearwater) $1.6 million Tactical Operation Centers (ELAMS/ESAMS/MECCS)
ATK Corp. (Clearwater) $4 million AN/AAR-47 Missile Warning System
CME (St. Petersburg) $2.4 million Lightweight Theater Transportable TOC
CME $2.4 million Foliage Penetrating Acoustically Cued Imagery Sensor Integration and Technology Evaluation
Coda Octopus Group (St. Petersburg) $2.4 million Port and Hull Security 3D, Real Time Sonar-System Echoscope
Coherent Systems (Largo) $1 million SOF Special Purpose Tagging, Tracking and Locating Tool Kit
CONAX Florida Corporation (St. Petersburg) $4 million HMMWV Restraint System
CONAX Florida Corporation $2.4 million Inertia Reel Restraint System Retrofit
Concurrent Technologies Corporation (Largo) $1.2 million SOF Mission Training and Preparation Systems Interoperability
Constellation Technology Corp. (St. Petersburg) $2 million Continuation of Advanced Materials Research for Nuclear Detection, Counter-proliferation and Imaging
Constellation Technology Corp. $1.6 million Continuation of Unmanned Vehicle CBRNE Unitary Sensor Suite Development and Demonstration
DRS Surveillance Support Systems (Largo) $1 million AN/SPY-1 Radar System Readiness Improvement
DRS Technologies (Largo) $4 million C-Band Active Array Radar System
DRS Technologies $1.6 million Back Fit Engineering Support for Air Search Radar System
DRS Technologies $1 million SCOUT Mk3
Eclipse Energy Systems (St. Petersburg) $1.2 million Advanced Dynamic Optics Program
Enable America, Inc. (Tampa) $1 million Warrior Wellness Program
Enser Corp. (Pinellas Park) $1 million Advanced Battery Technology
General Dynamics (St. Petersburg) $3.2 million Super High Accuracy Range Kit - 105mm Artillery Technology
Honeywell(Clearwater) $4 million Ballistic Missile Technology
Honeywell $4 million Ballistic Missile Range Safety Technology
Honeywell $3.2 million Precision Terrain Aided Navigation
IMC (St. Petersburg) $1 million Enterprise-wide Data and Knowledge Management System to Enhance USSOCOM Mission
IMC $2.4 million NMEC Intelligence Community R&D Lab and Better Service to Combatant Commands
IMC $3.2 million Improved Information Transfer for Special Forces
ITAC (St. Petersburg) $1.6 million SOCOM Imagery Dissemination System
Marine Desalination Systems (St. Petersburg) $1 million Atmospheric Water Harvesting
National Forensic Science Technology Center (Largo) $1.6 million Expansion of Mobile Forensic Labs and Technical Assistance and Training Support
Orion (Clearwater) $1 million Modeling and Simulation for Rapid
Raytheon Company (Largo) $4 million Cooperative Engagement Capability
SAIC (St. Petersburg) $2.4 million Battlefield Sensor Netting
SAIC $2 million Environmental Bioterrorism Detection Program
SRI International (St. Petersburg) $4.5 million Comprehensive Maritime Domain Awareness
SRI International $1.6 million Application Specific Integrated Circuits Fabrication
SRI International $1 million Underwater Acoustic Imaging for Maritime Domain Awareness
SRI International $1 million Micro-systems and nanotechnology for Advanced Technology Development
Source: Taxpayers for Commonsense


Next page: A sampling of earmarks put forward by Florida lawmakers.



A Sampler

Florida lawmakers slip earmark dollars into the federal budget for everything from museums to ferry boats:

The Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg received $287,000 for exhibits and programming. The earmark was sponsored by Reps. Bill Young (R) and Robert Wexler (D) and Sen. Bill Nelson (D).
Thanks to Rep. Ron Klein (D), the South Florida Science Museum in West Palm Beach received $310,000 for “educational and outreach” programs.
The Young At Art Children’s Museum in Davie received $167,000 for a permanent exhibit called the Global Village Project, where kids make passports and create music and learn about different cultures. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D) sponsored the earmark.
With help from Rep. Vern Buchanan (R), Mote Marine Laboratories in Sarasota received more than $2.5 million in federal earmark money in 2008, including $1.5 million for migratory shark research. The research center spent $60,000 on federal lobbying in 2007.
Rep. Allen Boyd (D) secured $95,000 for a prescription assistance program in Gadsden County. The program will improve access to medicines for the county’s 46,000 residents, 20% of whom live below the poverty line. The county paid two D.C.-based lobbying firms $80,000 in 2007.
The St. Johns River Ferry, which crosses the St. Johns River and connects Fort George Island to Mayport, received $490,000 to replace its aging backup boat. Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R) sponsored the earmark.
This year, the Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando received $192,000 for “facilities and equipment” thanks to Rep. Ric Keller (R).




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