By NEIL H. SIMON, Media General News Service
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WASHINGTON-As his colleagues debated a moratorium on congressionally-directed budget earmarks this month, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., requested $132.5 million for local projects.
The requests to congressional appropriators ranged from new roads and military construction to a host of projects aimed at restoring the polluted Chesapeake Bay.
"So much of who we are is the bay," said Wittman, who called for $12 million for eight programs directly related to cleaning the bay or studying ways to rebuild its fish and oyster industry.
Looking at the list of requests, several of which would go to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, bay advocates said it read like a wish-list for the waterway.
The funds would help remove nitrogen and sediments from the bay, study different ways of growing oysters, and look at harmful algae that can make the water and its fish deadly under certain conditions.
"From the point of view of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, every one of them ought to be funded," said foundation lobbyist Doug Siglin.
The oyster population is less than four percent of its natural level, Siglin said, and oysters help filter sediments out of the water.
Wittman remembers the bay teeming with marine life, even when he was a teen working on a fishing boat.
"I was always up to my knees and elbows," he said. "You'd find seahorses, fish, crabs, it was just jam-packed."
Now as a first-term representative, he sees the appropriations process as one way to help local agencies who are committed to bringing back that kind of life to the estuary.
"We've got to look to restore that bay for economic reasons and for cultural reasons," he said.
But critics at Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonprofit organization that opposes congressional earmarks, say Wittman is seeking to help the bay in the wrong way.
"Whether it sounds meritorious our not, this (funding) is not going to get any supervision or compete against any project that may be beneficial to the bay," said spokeswoman Leslie Page.
But Wittman says he knows his district's needs better than federal agency bureaucrats who would otherwise dole out the money.
In his first budget cycle, Wittman sought funding for 52 projects. The largest is $17.5 million to replace a 40-year-old missile support facility at the Navy's Dahlgren Division in King George Co.
"It's very urgent," Wittman said, citing million-dollar annual maintenance costs and damaged equipment at the current building.
He also sought $17 million for expanded broadband access, mostly in rural areas, and $10 million dollars for two transportation projects to improve access at Quantico Marine Corps Base, which is expecting an influx of roughly 3,000 jobs by 2011 due to Pentagon base realignments.
Side-stepping the intra-party debate over new House earmark policies, Wittman said he made sure his requests were supported by local agencies, contained non-federal funding, and pledged to publish his requests on his Web site.
"What we try to do is step out in front and develop our own policy and be sure we are transparent," Wittman said.
But critics said it would have been better for him to not participate in the earmark process at all.
"He's not starting off very well," said Paige. "If he's already climbing on the runaway train that is the earmark culture in Congress, he's going in the wrong direction."
Critics also say the earmark process increases spending, because lawmakers support each other's pet projects.
Wittman said he will suggest "spending reductions in other places to offset spending for (his) earmarks."
Lawmakers were required to submit any requests for fiscal year 2009 to the House Appropriations Committee early this month. Nothing requires them to reveal what they sought until the committee includes it in a budget bill.
Wittman's $132.5 million request ranks in the middle of the five Virginia lawmakers who shared their funding requests this month.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., requested $48.8 million for 39 projects.
Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., requested $168.9 million for 55 projects.
Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va, requested $249.6 million, almost all of it for mass transit near Dulles International Airport.
Cantor made no appropriation requests for the second year in a row and has called on lawmakers to follow suit while Congress considers reforms to the earmark process.
(Contact Neil H. Simon at nsimon@mediageneral.com)
The requests to congressional appropriators ranged from new roads and military construction to a host of projects aimed at restoring the polluted Chesapeake Bay.
"So much of who we are is the bay," said Wittman, who called for $12 million for eight programs directly related to cleaning the bay or studying ways to rebuild its fish and oyster industry.
Looking at the list of requests, several of which would go to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, bay advocates said it read like a wish-list for the waterway.
The funds would help remove nitrogen and sediments from the bay, study different ways of growing oysters, and look at harmful algae that can make the water and its fish deadly under certain conditions.
"From the point of view of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, every one of them ought to be funded," said foundation lobbyist Doug Siglin.
The oyster population is less than four percent of its natural level, Siglin said, and oysters help filter sediments out of the water.
Wittman remembers the bay teeming with marine life, even when he was a teen working on a fishing boat.
"I was always up to my knees and elbows," he said. "You'd find seahorses, fish, crabs, it was just jam-packed."
Now as a first-term representative, he sees the appropriations process as one way to help local agencies who are committed to bringing back that kind of life to the estuary.
"We've got to look to restore that bay for economic reasons and for cultural reasons," he said.
But critics at Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonprofit organization that opposes congressional earmarks, say Wittman is seeking to help the bay in the wrong way.
"Whether it sounds meritorious our not, this (funding) is not going to get any supervision or compete against any project that may be beneficial to the bay," said spokeswoman Leslie Page.
But Wittman says he knows his district's needs better than federal agency bureaucrats who would otherwise dole out the money.
In his first budget cycle, Wittman sought funding for 52 projects. The largest is $17.5 million to replace a 40-year-old missile support facility at the Navy's Dahlgren Division in King George Co.
"It's very urgent," Wittman said, citing million-dollar annual maintenance costs and damaged equipment at the current building.
He also sought $17 million for expanded broadband access, mostly in rural areas, and $10 million dollars for two transportation projects to improve access at Quantico Marine Corps Base, which is expecting an influx of roughly 3,000 jobs by 2011 due to Pentagon base realignments.
Side-stepping the intra-party debate over new House earmark policies, Wittman said he made sure his requests were supported by local agencies, contained non-federal funding, and pledged to publish his requests on his Web site.
"What we try to do is step out in front and develop our own policy and be sure we are transparent," Wittman said.
But critics said it would have been better for him to not participate in the earmark process at all.
"He's not starting off very well," said Paige. "If he's already climbing on the runaway train that is the earmark culture in Congress, he's going in the wrong direction."
Critics also say the earmark process increases spending, because lawmakers support each other's pet projects.
Wittman said he will suggest "spending reductions in other places to offset spending for (his) earmarks."
Lawmakers were required to submit any requests for fiscal year 2009 to the House Appropriations Committee early this month. Nothing requires them to reveal what they sought until the committee includes it in a budget bill.
Wittman's $132.5 million request ranks in the middle of the five Virginia lawmakers who shared their funding requests this month.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., requested $48.8 million for 39 projects.
Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., requested $168.9 million for 55 projects.
Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va, requested $249.6 million, almost all of it for mass transit near Dulles International Airport.
Cantor made no appropriation requests for the second year in a row and has called on lawmakers to follow suit while Congress considers reforms to the earmark process.
(Contact Neil H. Simon at nsimon@mediageneral.com)