Tired of getting skewered over pork, congressional Democrats want to turn the tables on Republicans, trying smoke them out on spending items that benefit their districts.
Veteran Minnesota Democrat Jim Oberstar, one of the masters of the art of bringing home the bacon, challenged House Republican colleagues on Friday to take a stand "for or against" making specific funding requests in their home districts. The move comes after the House Republican Conference adopted a moratorium on all congressional earmarks this year, allowing GOP Leader John Boehner to characterize the Democrats as "the sole purveyors of pork-barrel projects."
Oberstar, who prefers the term "member-directed funding" to pork, is particularly frosted that four GOP House members have formally rescinded their project requests under the Water Resources Development Act of 2010 (WRDA). The water bill, as some might term it, is a massive piece of legislation that would upgrade ports, locks, waterways and wetlands across the nation, a journeyman project for the Iron Range Democrat who chairs the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. In response to a request from Oberstar last year, 354 House members submitted letters requesting specific water projects, including 120 Republicans. Not that there's anything wrong with that, as Jerry Seinfeld might say. Or, as Oberstar said in a statement Friday: "The ability to direct funding to specific projects is an important tool that all members of Congress have to benefit their constituents." "Unfortunately," Oberstar added, "the Republican leadership is trying to vilify their members who are using this practice to aid their constituents." Among those who have led the charge against earmarks in this fiscally-fixated election year are Minnesota Republicans John Kline and Michele Bachmann, who call the system corrupt. But Bachmann, who has been talking a lot about job creation this week, is taking hits from Democrats for her recent vote against a $6.6 billion home weatherization program that would offer rebates for energy-efficient home improvements. While not exactly an earmark, the program provides a big boost for Bayport's Andersen Windows, a major employer in Bachmann's 6th Congressional District.
