At Issue: Earmarking: Federal funding process hits snag
Sen. Coburn sees benefit in Democrats' plan to start anew on appropriations.
By JIM MYERS
Tulsa World
December 31, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Annual funding for a number of Oklahoma projects, including Interstate 44 in Tulsa, has been snarled by a breakdown in the appropriations process in Congress.
Not all members of the state's delegation, however, are unhappy about the situation.
Republican U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, who reportedly helped force GOP leaders to give up finishing work on annual spending bills several weeks ago, believes any short-term sacrifice in Oklahoma will be worth it if more projects he describes as pork are killed.
In a column posted on his Web site, Coburn even praised key Democrats for picking up where the Republicans left off by announcing they will not try to revive the spending bills when they take charge in January.
"The handful of Oklahoma projects that will be delayed while Congress abstains from pork is a small price to pay for the enormous long-term benefits we could gain from a change in direction in Washington," wrote Coburn, who declined to respond to additional questions.
Others don't agree.
Republican Rep. Tom Cole, who had sought funding for a Tinker Air Force Base project and several others for his district, said key projects around the state will not be funded if the Democratic approach holds.
"Most earmarks are not pork," Cole said. "They are legitimate requests. I believe all of the projects I requested are important and each one meets a national or a local need."
Citing support for fiscal restraint, Republican Rep. John Sullivan said he was still evaluating how the budget process would affect his district.
"The process needs to be more transparent to increase the confidence of the American taxpayers in the congressional funding process," he said.
Sullivan expressed confidence in the importance placed on the I-44 project.
"Ranked 18th in the state in traffic fatalities in 2006, a one-mile stretch of I-44 west of Yale Avenue has been responsible for five fatal automobile accidents and over 200 injury accidents," Sullivan said.
"It is vital that this dangerous road is improved upon."
A key official at the Oklahoma Department of Transportation said the I-44 project, in which eventual costs have been estimated to be $265 million, should not be affected immediately by the appropriations impasse in Congress.
"We are not going to outrun our money in 2007," said Mike Patterson, ODOT's chief financial officer.
"We have enough money in the pipeline."
Patterson said the state already has received $89 million for some phases of the I-44 project.
Smaller road projects, however, will be hit much harder by lawmakers' decision to forgo individual earmarks, he said, declining to identify any of those.
Although funding for several of the projects he requested for his district could be wiped out if the current approach remains, Democratic Rep. Dan Boren withheld criticism.
"This is not a perfect solution, but it's the best one available to us," Boren said.
"I will continue to seek earmarked funding for the 2nd District when the new Congress convenes."
After the Republican-controlled Congress adjourned without finishing work on most of the annual spending bills, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and Rep. Dave Obey, D-Wis., who will take over as chairmen of the Senate and House Appropriations panels next year, announced they will not try and pass the delayed spending bills.
They were critical of what they described as the Republicans' failure to govern.
Coburn and Sen. John McCain of Arizona put fellow Republicans on notice early this year that they would challenge earmarks placed in appropriations bills.
According to published reports, Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican, forced the Republicans' hands even further after the midterm elections by warning that he and Coburn would block efforts to pass an omnibus bill to finish work on the annual appropriations process.
Republican leaders opted for a continuing resolution to keep federal agencies operating.
Coburn declined to respond to questions about the matter.
Byrd and Obey said they will lead Congress out of the "fiscal mayhem" left by Republicans by passing a yearlong joint resolution to get the government through 2007.
"There will be no congressional earmarks in the joint funding resolution that we will pass," their announcement read. "We will place a moratorium on all earmarks until a reformed process is put in place."
Boren said the Byrd-Obey approach will allow states and local officials to plan for the coming year knowing exactly how much federal funding they will receive.
"It will also allow the new Congress to get to work right away on a fiscally responsible budget and spending bills that include a transparent process for funding projects vital to our state," he said.
Projects affected Oklahoma projects affected by the appropriations impasse in Congress include:
· Widening of Interstate 44 in Tulsa, $54 million with an additional $250,000 requested by Republican Rep. John Sullivan.
· New buses and equipment for Tulsa Transit, $500,000.
· Deepening the existing channel of the McClellan-Kerr navigation system, $4 million.
· Facilities and equipment for a simulation center, University of Oklahoma, Tulsa, $200,000.
· Telemedicine and distance-learning equipment, Oklahoma State University’s Center for Health Sciences, $200,000.
· An electrical substation at Tinker Air Force Base, $5.7 million.
· Continuation of a study of the Arbuckle-Simpson Aquifer, $750,000.
· Interstate 35 access roads improvement, Love County, $500,000.
· Rural on-campus housing and child-care facility at Eastern Oklahoma State College, $100,000.
· Ramp construction, U.S. 69 and Chuckwa Drive in Durant, $450,000.
· Equipment and technology, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, $300,000.
· Equipment and operating expenses, Boys and Girls Club of Delaware County, Jay, $300,000.
· Facilities and equipment, Family Health Center of Southern Oklahoma, Tishomingo, $150,000.
