An Associated Press analysis of congressional spending since 2005 found that the mall has been at a disadvantage in competing for extra funds doled out by lawmakers, compared with sites that are represented by powerful members of Congress. The mall is in Washington, which has no vote in the House or Senate.
Last year, when dozens of ducks and ducklings died of avian botulism because the water in a mall pool near the Capitol was fetid, and as urgent repairs were needed to stop the Jefferson Memorial’s sea wall from sinking into the mud, the Senate killed a $3.5 million earmark for the mall.
Instead, funding went to projects back home. All told, Congress sent home more than $181 million in earmarks through the National Park Service budget last year - an election year - according to data compiled by the group Taxpayers for Common Sense and analyzed by the AP. Nearly half that money was driven by lawmakers who were on the House and Senate appropriations committees.
Earmarks are used to boost projects both large and small. In 2008, there was $20 million for dam removal at Olympic National Park in Washington state with help from Representative Norm Dicks, Democrat of Washington, who oversees Park Service funding; Senator Robert Byrd, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, sent more than $3.3 million home to West Virginia, including $123,000 to restore a Mother’s Day Shrine. Lawmakers sent millions more home to restore county courthouses and local historical sites that aren’t part of the national parks.
Government watchdogs say earmarks corrupt the budget process.
“We’re making spending decisions on the basis of political muscle, rather than project merit,’’ said Stephen Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense.
“Because the mall is owned by nobody, even though it is this gem for many Americans, it gets short shrift,’’ he said.
