Murtha's Earmarking Not Unusual Among Subcommittee Members

A senior congressman's controversial pattern of steering lucrative defense contracts to firms represented by his close friends and former staffers is a common practice among his fellow members on a powerful appropriations subcommittee, according to a new analysis by a watchdog group.

Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee, has been criticized by ethics and taxpayer advocacy groups for channeling hundreds of millions of Pentagon dollars to companies represented by lobbying firms headed by close associates who are also major donors to his campaigns.

Using a computer analysis of public records, the Center for Public Integrity found that 12 of the committee's 16 members have mimicked Murtha's pattern of earmarking, providing targeted military funds to specific contractors represented by former staffers and friends. Numerous investigative stories have focused on projects Murtha and fellow lawmakers Peter J. Visclosky (D-Ind.) and James P. Moran (D-Va.) have funded with military money, but other committee members' earmark requests have not faced similar scrutiny.

Since the fall of last year, federal investigators have been probing the PMA Group, a former lobbying firm with close ties to Murtha. The firm's clients had unusual success in winning targeted earmarks from Murtha's committee. Founder Paul Magliocchetti is a close friend of Murtha's and worked as an appropriations staffer when Murtha was a member of the committee.

According to the center's analysis, which focused on the 2008 fiscal year, the pattern of steering earmarks to clients of the lawmakers' former staffers who had become lobbyists involved 50 earmarks and campaign donations of more than $1 million. A significant chunk of the money was steered to clients of PMA, but also to clients of another 10 lobbying firms, including such prominent firms as Van Scoyoc Associates Inc. and Innovative Strategies, formerly Copeland Lowery Jaquez Denton & White.

A spokesman in Murtha's office could not be reached for comment Wednesday morning on the Center's report.