State Lawmakers Manage to Bring Home the Bacon

Look closely in the new federal budget that passed the House on Thursday and you’ll find all sorts of goodies for California: An archway for Los Angeles’ Chinatown, a sprinkler system for a Redlands cemetery and a battleship for a San Francisco museum are but a few.

When it came to doling out money for pet projects in their districts, California’s congressional delegation--Republicans and Democrats alike--set aside their partisan differences and passionately embraced the message most memorably parsed by the late House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill (D-Mass.): “All politics is local.”

The federally funded largess for California and other states, estimated to total a record $14.6 billion or more this year, was added to the budget even as Congress haggled for months over how to keep spending down. But little consideration was given to cracking down on the time-honored practice of bringing home the bacon. (A 19th century lawmaker once pleaded with his colleagues: “Don’t adjourn until I’ve got my piece of pork.”)

California lawmakers, of course, were not alone in packing their local wish lists into the budget, which now goes to the Senate for expected approval. Mississippi lawmakers, for example, secured $375 million for a helicopter aircraft carrier that the Pentagon never requested.

But given its sheer size, it’s not surprising that California ranked No. 1 in a survey of last year’s budget by the Citizens Against Government Waste--receiving $540 million for local projects that the watchdog group viewed as pork. When the final numbers for the new fiscal year are tabulated, the state is expected to be near or at the top again.

Buried in the budget--between the billions for foreign aid, defense and social programs--are such appropriations as $600,000 for removing burros from the California desert, $3.5 million for dredging Marina del Rey harbor and $1 million for preserving historic Mission San Juan Capistrano. There also is $50,000 for a mural in Twentynine Palms, $100,000 for the Arcadia Historical Museum and $100,000 for development of an international trade center in Tulare County.

One person’s pork, to be sure, is another’s pride.

Take $3 million put into the defense budget for towing the Iowa from Rhode Island to San Francisco and converting the battleship into a floating museum.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), whose attacks on “pork-barrel” spending have been a central theme of his presidential campaign, singled out the appropriation on his Web page. He called it a “pernicious episode of giving higher priority to bringing home the bacon than to national security interests.”

But Rep. Lynn C. Woolsey (D-Petaluma), who helped secure the funding, stoutly defended the project, saying the ship would help children learn more about U.S. history. “The real problem with our spending priorities is the billions of dollars we continue to pour into nuclear weapons and military expansion while our children attend dilapidated schools,” she said.

“It’s never pork when it’s in your district,” said Rep. James E. Rogan (R-Glendale), who limited his requests--both approved--to $1 million for renovating the Pasadena Civic Auditorium and $2 million for a science center at Glendale Community College.

Ultimately, the funding for these projects could change because of an across-the-board 0.38% spending cut demanded by congressional Republicans that President Clinton accepted in last-minute negotiations. But the targeting of that reduction has been left to each agency to determine.

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), a key member of the House Appropriations Committee, was unapologetic about his efforts to deliver projects for his district, including $10 million for seismic retrofitting projects that McCain also singled out for criticism.

One project, at Loma Linda University Medical Center, will demonstrate using a laser to strengthen buildings, Lewis said. He said the project has national significance because it could reduce the costs of strengthening buildings to better withstand earthquakes.

Among other appropriations Lewis secured for his district: $26 million for medical research; $20 million for university and water reclamation projects; $20 million for military-related projects, including $4 million for space radiation research at Loma Linda; and $3 million for 10 economic development projects, including $100,000 to maintain Hillside Cemetery in Redlands.

The large number of California projects in the budget underscores the influence of the state’s delegation--the largest in Congress--and the clout wielded by the seven California House members who serve on the Appropriations Committee--again the most of any state.

In addition to the money they secured, California lawmakers fought off an effort to cut funding for jailing criminal illegal immigrants--a move that would have slashed California’s share of the federal aid for that program to $31 million from $244 million. Retaining the funding was Gov. Gray Davis’ priority in the budget battle.

The delegation also won a temporary reprieve from a proposal to require public agencies to insure their buildings against damage from disasters. California lawmakers said the proposal would be an economic disaster to cities and schools. The delegation included language in the budget directing the General Accounting Office to study the financial effect of the proposal before it is implemented.

The delegation failed, however, to boost education funding to reflect the increase in the number of state schoolchildren who live in poverty. “The Northeast and Midwestern states once again took advantage of their strengths in one subcommittee to keep funds from flowing to states that need them,” said Tim Ransdell, executive director of the California Institute for Federal Policy Research, which tracks state-related issues in Washington.

The state did obtain $18.2 million to continue a crackdown by state law enforcement officials on methamphetamine trafficking.

Rep. Stephen Horn (R-Long Beach) obtained $50 million to shore up levees on the lower Los Angeles River and relieve tens of thousands of southeast Los Angeles County residents of a federal mandate to buy flood insurance. An additional $7 million to $15 million will be needed next year to complete the project, said an aide to Horn.

Horn also secured $4 million in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration budget for the Downey Space Museum, to be built at the former site of a Boeing Co. plant.

Rep. Steven T. Kuykendall (R-Rancho Palos Verdes), a freshman facing a potentially tough reelection next year, will be among the many coming home with something to brag about.

He secured $3.5 million for dredging the Marina del Rey harbor entrance. The project will clear the harbor to reduce the Coast Guard’s emergency response time in the event of an accident at Los Angeles International Airport, as well as provide sediment to replenish eroding beaches in Redondo Beach.

“Let’s get Washington out of the business of earmarking” money for such uses, said Rep. Edward R. Royce (R-Fullerton), co-chairman of the Congressional Porkbusters Coalition. “It would free up the time of Congress to be engaged in the important public policy issues of the day.”

But, he said, it has become more difficult to push reform. “It was easier back when we had larger deficits. It made everybody a deficit hawk,” he said.

* BUDGET CLEARS HOUSE: The House backed a $385-billion budget as both sides claimed victories. A28

How Southland Benefits

Some of the Southern California projects funded in the federal budget for fiscal 2000.

Los Angeles County

* County government’s roll-out team to investigate police shootings, $1 million.

* Seismic strengthening of water systems in Arcadia and Sierra Madre, $2 million.

* L.A. Bridges, a program to coordinate school, police and community organizations to provide intervention and crime prevention activities for middle school students, $500,000.

* L.A.’s Best (Better Educated Students for Tomorrow), a program to provide after-school services for low-income children at 24 Los Angeles schools, $2 million.

* Los Angeles Police Department’s Family Violence Response Teams, $1 million

* Santa Monica Police Department’s automated mobile field reporting system, $550,000.

* Relocation of a stretch of Pacific Crest Trail away from busy Agua Dulce Canyon Road, $1.5 million.

Orange County

* Expansion of the Mile Square Regional Park in Fountain Valley, $350,000.

* Soil remediation and cleanup in Huntington Beach Central Park, $350,000.

Ventura County

* Expansion of a program to identify illegal immigrants in local jails, $5 million.

* Renovation and expansion of Oxnard Boys’ and Girls’ Club, $500,000.

Final amounts could change because of a 0.38% overall federal budget cut that still must be implemented; department heads have been given flexibility to determine what programs will be cut.

Information on other projects for the state is available at https://www.calinst.org, the California Institute for Federal Policy Research.