Earmarks Now Everybody's Business

Who put a million dollars for an "Extended Cold Weather Clothing System" into the 2008 defense spending bill President Bush signed yesterday?

The item is one of thousands that can be found on EarmarkWatch.org, a new Web site that enlists voters' help monitoring congressional spending. The site supplies users with the tools they need to research earmarks and, creators say, "a forum for lively debate over what constitutes a worthwhile expenditure of federal funds -- which earmarks meet pressing needs, which are political favors, and which are pure pork."

It took three clicks to turn up four lawmakers behind the hand-protection earmark yesterday: Democratic Reps. Brian Baird, Norm Dicks and Jim McDermott and Republican Rep. Dave Reichert, all of Washington state. They helped a Seattle-based company called Outdoor Research win a contract for the system, otherwise known as "gloves."

Created by two prominent watchdog groups, the Sunlight Foundation and Taxpayers for Common Sense, the earmark site "walks people through the steps involved in who's behind an earmark and why, and it calls the public into the actual project research," said Steve Ellis, vice president at Taxpayers for Common Sense.

As someone who spends weeks each year searching federal spending bills for pork, Ellis hopes that eventually the new tool "will help millions of Americans to research what Congress should already be telling them: How their dollars are being spent."

Three users of the site recently ran down an earmark for ICRC Solutions, an Alaska company that received $1 million for a Land and Sea Special Operations all-terrain vehicle known as a LASSO. In comments posted on the site, users said the company's chief executive is James Lexo, a former aide to Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) and a big campaign contributor.

"Citizens just dug into it and found all the information," said Bill Allison, senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, who helped construct the site. "It's just amazing how proficient users have been and how much they've stuck to the task."

The site, which debuted as congressional spending battles heated up in late September, has attracted more than 500 regular visitors, who add to a massive database supplied by the Taxpayers group, which catalogues earmarks annually.

Another intriguing fact users uncovered: Of 240 corporations and nonprofits identified as earmark recipients so far, nearly half employ lobbyists, who ostensibly helped steer the cash their way.

The site is particularly strong on the 2008 defense appropriations bill. Signed yesterday by Bush, the $460 billion bill may not contain as many earmarks as the labor-health bill the president vetoed. But it is known as the bill that carries the priciest and most cleverly hidden earmarks, including the money for glove testing and the LASSO vehicle.

This year, new ethics rules require lawmakers to submit letters that provide more information about pet spending projects, giving users more background.

Next up, Allison said, is a new way to track transportation bill earmarks. "You can actually get people to go out to the roads, take pictures and say what's there . . . and get people to look at how transportation money's being spent."

The feature would be modeled on Emporis.com, a Web site whose contributors document and track building construction throughout the world.

But for now, earmark watchers are talking about "$1,000,000 to Darn Tough Socks for Marine Corps Merino Wool Cushion Boot Sock," sponsored by Rep. Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont, where the Darn Tough sock company makes its home.

Wrote one user: "They do look good, but why are they in an earmark and not in the general military budget?"