By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
The New York Times
WASHINGTON -- Sens. Ted Stevens of Alaska and Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii are the best of friends in the Senate, so close they call each other brother.
Both are decorated veterans of World War II. They have worked together for nearly four decades as senators from the two youngest and farthest-flung states. And they share an almost unrivaled appetite for what some call political pork.
Stevens, an 83-year-old Republican, and Inouye, an 82-year-old Democrat, routinely deliver to their states more money per capita in earmarks -- the pet projects lawmakers insert into major spending bills -- than any other state gets. This year, Alaska received $1.05 billion in earmarks, or $1,677.27 per resident, while Hawaii got $903.9 million, or $746.05 per resident, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan group that tracks such figures.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, and many Democratic candidates have railed for months against wasteful "special interest earmarks" inserted into bills "in the dark of night." Now their party's electoral victories mean that Stevens will hand Inouye the gavel of the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee, which presides over the largest pool of discretionary spending and earmarks.
"I don't see any monumental changes," Inouye said in a recent interview. He plans to continue his subcommittee's approach to earmarks, he said.
Meet the new cardinals, as the chairmen of the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees are known on Capitol Hill. Many have a lot in common with the Republicans they will succeed.
All have worked for years to climb to their posts, where the authority to grant earmarks puts them among the most powerful lawmakers in Congress. Like Inouye and Stevens, many have developed unusual bipartisan camaraderie while divvying up projects. By long-standing, informal agreement, the majority typically doles out about 60 percent of the money for earmarks, and lets the minority pass out the rest. And they form a united front against any limitations on the earmark process.
"What is good for the goose is good for the gander," Sen. Patty Murray, the Washington Democrat who is set to become chairwoman of the transportation subcommittee, said last fall in a speech defending an Alaska Republican's allocation of more than $200 million in federal money for a bridge to remote Gravina, Alaska, population 50, linking Ketchikan to its airport. It became notorious as the "Bridge to Nowhere."
"I tell my colleagues, if we start cutting funding for individual projects, your project may be next," Murray warned. The bridge's future is unclear.
Earmarks became associated with corruption in the last Congress because of their role in bribery scandals. But the number and cost of such projects has soared for years. The Congressional Research Service found that over the last 12 years, the number of earmarks had tripled to 16,000, worth $64 billion a year.
Critics argue that the system fosters waste and cronyism by allowing individual lawmakers to direct federal money to pet projects with little vetting or oversight, often anonymously.
Some critics argue that the Democrats' proposal to disclose authorship may not do much to curb the use the earmarks. "Transparency would be enough if we had any shame, if you were embarrassed to get an earmark for the National Wild Turkey Federation," said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., referring to a $234,000 earmark in a recent agricultural spending bill. "But Republicans and Democrats have shown that is no longer any embarrassment."
Like their Republican counterparts, many Democratic appropriators consider earmarks a venerable tradition dating to the Constitution, which gives Congress the power of the purse. They argue that lawmakers know their constituents' needs better than bureaucrats do.
"I happen to be a supporter of earmarks, unabashedly," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the Democrat set to become chairman of the appropriations subcommittee for labor, health and human services. "But I don't call them earmarks. It is 'congressional directed funding.' "
Many of the new Democratic chairmen are among the most experienced purveyors of political bacon. The next chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee is Sen. Robert C. Byrd, 89, the West Virginia Democrat who may be the foremost master of the art. Dozens of West Virginia bridges, roads and public buildings bear his name.
In an interview with The Honolulu Advertiser the day after the election, Inouye said he and Stevens did not plan to rock the boat. "I had a chat with Senator Stevens before the election," Inouye said. "We pledged to each other that no matter what happens, we will continue with our tested system of bipartisanship, and we've been doing this for the past 25 years, and it's worked."
