Former Rep. William Jefferson has earmarks in spending bill

By Bruce Albert, The Times-Picayune

February 26, 2009

He is no longer a member of Congress, but former Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, is still delivering the bacon.

Nearly $6 million for seven Louisiana projects sponsored or co-sponsored by Jefferson are included in a $410 billion spending bill approved by the House this week and now awaiting final legislative approval in the Senate.

The spending covers the final seven months of the 2009 fiscal year for nine federal agencies. Largely put together last year, but not enacted because of disagreements between the Democratic-led Congress and the Bush administration, the bill provides about $7 billion in earmarks by members of Congress.

Jefferson, who lost his bid for re-election to Republican Anh "Joseph" Cao, isn't alone among former members with earmarks in the spending bill.

Former Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., now chief of staff for President Barack Obama, secured $900,000 for the Adler Planetarium in his hometown of Chicago. Former Rep. Jim McCrery, R-Shreveport, who retired from Congress and is now a lobbyist, got several items financed, including $1.6 million for a project in his district called Remote Continuous Energetic Material Manufacturing for Pyrotechnics.

Jefferson's projects in the spending bill include $380,000 for transit financing requests by systems in New Orleans, Jefferson Parish and other Louisiana communities; $450,000 to create a multi-level intermodal transit facility at Southern University in Baton Rouge; and $800,000 for a Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs rehabilitation and training program for the blind operating with Louisiana Tech University.

He also secured $951,000 for Materials Energy Research at Tulane University; $2.4 million for Advanced Materials Research Institute at the University of New Orleans; $500,000 for the New Orleans Police Foundation; and $400,000 for pre-disaster mitigation at West Jefferson Medical Center.

All are co-sponsored by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and four of them are also sponsored by Sen. David Vitter. R-La.

In a phone interview, Jefferson said he's glad that the work he did in Congress last year paid dividends, even if it didn't happen until after his election defeat.

"We had wonderful relationships with all the decision makers in Washington .¤.¤. and many of the appropriators and we constantly put in front of them all the recovery issues and the needs of our district," Jefferson said. I'm happy we came through with at least some of those requests."

Jefferson, who faces a federal corruption trial in U.S. District Court in Virginia beginning May 26, said he would speak later about what he is doing now that he's out of Congress. He has said he is innocent of the 16 bribery-related counts against him.

Earmarks continue to be controversial, and some members of Congress have said that they were unhappy that the spending bill included by one count more than $7.7 billion worth of earmarks for 8,500 projects.

But Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said that earmarks, as long as they are fully disclosed with the names of the sponsoring members, are better than having "the White House and its anonymous bureaucrats make every single spending decision in government."