Scandal-plagued Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) found an ally in the potential battle over securing his earmarks: fellow appropriator Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho).
“He will work to defend them just like they are his own,” Simpson’s communications director, Nikki Watts, said of her boss’s attitude toward Craig’s earmarks.
Craig’s earmarks in various Senate appropriations bills may well be at risk. The senator either has sponsored or co-sponsored about $76 million in earmarks, according to data compiled by Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS), a budget watchdog group. In the past when members of Congress have left before the end of their term, their planned projects sometimes did not survive the annual funding battle.
“[Craig’s] goal is to ensure that the transition to a new senator for Idaho goes as smoothly as possible,” Craig’s communications director, Dan Whiting, said. “That includes ensuring his earmark requests receive committee support, and he and his staff are working to ensure that happens for Idaho.”
Whiting reiterated earlier statements that the senator is fighting the charges against him and that, if cleared before his planned departure date of Sept. 30, Craig may not resign.
Earlier this summer, Craig was alleged to have solicited sex from an undercover police officer in a Minneapolis airport public bathroom. He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.
Watts said Simpson would work to protect his fellow Idahoan’s projects if he is appointed to conference committees for appropriations bills. Simpson, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, worked together with Craig on several earmark requests during the last year.
Rep. Bill Sali (R-Idaho) also has offered support. Sali plans to consult with other members of the Idaho delegation to “project an united front” and protect Craig’s earmarks, according to Sali’s communications director, Wayne Hoffman.
Hoffman said Craig’s departure will affect the senator’s earmarked projects, but was unsure of the scope: “What kind of impact will it have? We don’t know.”
Sen. Mike Crapo’s (R-Idaho) office declined to comment.
Craig’s earmarks are mostly directed toward his home state. Large state institutions, such as the University of Idaho, stand to benefit from the senator’s earmarks.
“You reap what you sow, and earmarking rewards political power over project merit, so when your power disappears, so does a lot of your funding,” TCS’s vice president, Steve Ellis, said.
Absent lawmakers can hurt a state’s bottom line. After former Rep. Bill Janklow (R-S.D.) resigned his seat in January 2004 due to a conviction for manslaughter, his state did not receive any earmarked funding in that year’s massive federal highway legislation.
Accordingly, lobbyists representing clients that would benefit from Craig’s earmarks are on alert.
“We are watching it very carefully,” a partner at the Normandy Group, Stan Skocki, said. Skocki and others at his lobby firm are representing A Child Is Missing, a national nonprofit organization that helps local law enforcement agencies locate missing individuals.
The group is slated to receive $100,000 from an earmark Craig sponsored on his own. Skocki plans to discuss the senator’s earmarked projects in a meeting he scheduled with Crapo and Simpson before news of Craig’s arrest broke.
Unlike Janklow’s exit, which came early in the appropriations process, Skocki said Craig’s late-in-the-year departure may shield the senator’s projects. In addition, new ethics rules that emphasize disclosure of earmark sponsors could help Craig.
“It is much more transparent now,” said Skocki, once an aide to former top appropriator Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.).
“Beforehand, they could take his money and quietly reallocate it to someone else’s project, whereas that may be more difficult today.”
Several appropriations lobbyists were less optimistic. Many predicted that several of Craig’s earmarks would be lost — if not all.
“The normal way the things work up there is when a senator leaves, his earmarks leave with him,” said one.
Another lobbyist said Craig’s projects would be swallowed up during conference committees over the appropriations bills.
“When you go to conference and you are looking to reduce money, you are going to look at the easiest places to cut spending.
That will be where there is no strong member to protect the project,” the lobbyist said.
One Republican Appropriations Committee aide said no projects, including Craig’s, are totally safe. “All earmarks are subject to change at all times,” the aide said.
Facing a Senate ethics investigation, Craig has stepped down from his leadership positions on several committees, including his ranking member spot on the Interior Appropriations subcommittee.
Like Craig, time is short for the Senate as well, with the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30. Eleven of the chamber’s 12 appropriations bills have been marked up by the committee, but only one has passed so far.
A Democratic aide said a floor vote was expected Wednesday afternoon for the military construction and veteran affairs funding bill. Under the deadline, the Senate might wrap all appropriations bills into one omnibus package or pass a continuing resolution to buy time.
The GOP aide said it is highly unlikely that the senator’s replacement, appointed by Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter (R), will take Craig’s place on the committee.
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