Coburn aims to increase accountability on earmarks

In a war against an “earmark surge,” a Senate budget hawk is offering an amendment to the defense authorization bill to competitively bid earmarked funds by Congress to help end no-bid contracts.

Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) provision aims to reduce spending but also create a political calculus whereby the earmarking process costs lawmakers with the voting public.

{mosads}“The larger problem is members believe they have the right to divert defense funds to their own districts to help with their reelection campaigns,” a Coburn spokesman, John Hart, said. “Earmarks, by definition, are no-bid contracts.”

Coburn’s provision is not the only current Senate attempt to reform the contracting process through the defense authorization bill. Nine freshman senators, joined by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.), yesterday introduced an amendment to create an independent commission on wartime contracting.

Contracts handed out by the Pentagon in Iraq have led to overspending and poor performance, critics say. Democrats in both the House and the Senate have hammered on a former Halliburton subsidiary, KBR, in particular, for its poor
accounting.

The Senate freshmen’s amendment would expand the authority of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction to investigate wartime contracting in Afghanistan. In a “Dear Colleague” letter, Sens. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) wrote that the amendment was inspired by the work of the Truman Committee, which they said saved taxpayers more than $174 billion in today’s dollars.

The current Senate defense authorization bill is full of listed earmarked projects — more than $5 billion worth. The vice president for Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS), Steve Ellis, said the process “invites fraud and abuse.”

“If you could remove the ability to short-circuit the acquisition process, you remove the incentive to earmark,” Ellis said.

Some lawmakers have found themselves under federal investigation or incarcerated after earmarking led to no-bid contracts for particular companies — former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.), for example, is serving a more than eight-year sentence for crimes related to such efforts.

Coburn’s amendment, if passed, would ensure that all earmarked funds would enter a competitive process. In addition, executive agencies every year would report to Congress to specify the recipients of the funds, the reasons for choosing recipients and the number of entities that competed to earn the funds.

Coburn’s amendment is part of a raft of provisions that target specific programs in the Senate defense authorization bill.

The Oklahoma Republican has targeted funds for the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), a project pushed by Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.). Several members have questioned the usefulness of the center, which is located in Murtha’s Johnstown, Pa., district.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) tried to cut funding for the NDIC but in turn his own earmarked projects allegedly were threatened by Murtha. Rogers earned an apology from the Pennsylvania Democrat for his outburst.

Murtha’s office declined to comment about the Coburn amendment.

With another amendment, Coburn has placed a fellow Senate colleague’s appropriation request in his sights: Sen. Ben Nelson’s (D-Neb.) $7.5 million earmark for 21st Century Systems Inc. (21CSI), a Nebraska-based defense contractor.

A spokesman for Nelson, David DiMartino, argued that Coburn is ignorant of research for national security.

Work done at 21CSI “is reminiscent of the kind of research that won us the space race and the cold war,” DiMartino wrote in an e-mail. “Senator Coburn doesn’t seem to understand that going to war without adequate training tools and
technology would be like performing surgery before diagnosing the ailment.”

According to its website, 21CSI has several military contracts that provide software to the Army and Navy.

Coburn also has filed a provision to open up competition for the Army’s contract to replace its rifles. Concerned about the M4 carbine, Coburn held up the nomination of Army Secretary Peter Geren until the nominee agreed to test the weapon in sandstorm conditions this August, according to a report in The Army Times.

Coburn’s attempts to cut costs often have been unsuccessful. According to the senator’s website, Coburn has had one amendment pass this Congress by a voice vote to cut spending, while four others have been rejected by a wide margin.

Hart argued the Oklahoma Republican’s amendments are beyond simple legislative victories, but rather part of a bigger political effort.

“It is not just about winning the vote but it is about winning the debate with the public and creating a political cost for earmarking,” Hart said. “We lost the vote on ‘the Bridge to Nowhere,’ but I think we won the argument.”

Hart said Coburn’s amendments could be up for debate on the Senate floor today.

Roxana Tiron contributed to this report.