Jun

25

Vern McKinley Questions Frank Wolf On Earmarks

Filed Under Earmarks, Frank Wolf 

Contact: Lisa Bell

703-470-5042

Ashburn, VA—President Bush in his 2007 State of the Union Address called for an end to earmarking An earmark is funding for a project that is not requested by the President and is essentially a special interest add-on that an individual member of Congress requests. Citizens Against Government Waste, an organization which strives to eliminate waste, mismanagement, and inefficiency in the federal government, has a better name for earmarks: Pork. The earmark process often lacks transparency and is done secretively. To shed some light on this secretive process, President Bush directed the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to provide detail on nearly 15,000 earmarks costing tens of billions of dollars for fiscal year 2005.

As a follow-up to the publication of these 15,000 earmarks by OMB, challenger Vern McKinley contacted Congressman Wolf’s office regarding the 51 earmarks in his Tenth District (VA) that totaled $54 million. McKinley requested some very basic information from the Congressman on these earmarks, including which of the 51 earmarks his office was involved with, what the justification was for that involvement, whether the Congressman applied any consistent policies to earmarks and finally whether these policies address the case of accepting campaign contributions from companies or related entities within the district that also receive earmarks.

Of particular interest to McKinley were two instances where the recipients of two $3 million earmarks during 2005, Science Applications International Corporation and Northrop Grumman, were also two of the largest campaign contributors to Wolf through the companies’ PACs or through other means (www.opensecrets.org).

Instead of addressing McKinley’s straightforward questions, Congressman Wolf noted that he does “support reform and transparency across the board in identifying how taxpayer dollars are spent” which “includes publication of requested earmarks by sponsor in all legislation which comes to the House for a vote and from every committee.” However, Congressman Wolf was one of only 24 Republicans who voted against a rule just last year requiring that all members identify the particular pork-barrel spending earmarks they are requesting (House Vote 449).

Congressman Wolf’s response is clear: The earmarks he requested are a secret and they will remain a secret. “Congressman Wolf is very selective in his disclosure of earmarks. If he sees some political benefit to disclosure he releases the information, but if he wants to keep the details to himself he will do so. Throughout this campaign, I will continue to press Congressman Wolf, not only on the issue of earmarking, but also on the broader issues of government spending and the proper role and size of the federal government,” McKinley concluded.

To learn more about the McKinley for Congress campaign, please visit www.McKinleyforCongress.com.

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