Goode, Goodlatte say local endeavors worthy of earmarks

The two members of Congress who represent the Lynchburg area take different approaches to earmarks, an often-controversial and sometimes ridiculed practice lawmakers use to steer federal money to specific projects.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-6th District, and Rep. Virgil Goode, R-5th District, don’t hesitate to explain the earmarks they sponsored in fiscal 2008. Localities in their districts benefited, they said.

Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog organization, credited Goode with spreading $35.9 million of earmarked federal funds around the 5th District, which includes Appomattox, Campbell and Bedford counties.

Some of Goode’s earmarks benefited defense-related businesses whose executives contributed to his campaign chest.

“I support having a strong Navy,” Goode said, referring to a $2.4 million earmark to a Sperry Marine project that would improve ship navigation and guidance. Sperry Marine employs many people in the Charlottesville area, Goode said.

Several contributions listed in Goode’s campaign finance reports are from people connected to Northrup Grumman, parent company of Sperry Marine. Others are linked to executives with subsidiaries of General Dynamics, the nation’s other shipbuilding conglomerate, and to lobbyists who represent the two corporations.

“It all depends on your definition of an earmark,” Goode said. “I consider overseas AIDS an earmark,” he said, referring to presidentially proposed funding to combat the disease in other countries.

Goode said that instead of curbing AIDS in other countries, he would prefer to fund National Institutes of Health efforts to deal with heart disease, multiple sclerosis, and other problems of American citizens.

Goode said some earmarks he’s helped obtain did not appear in the Taxpayers for Common Sense report, but he wanted to claim credit for helping with federal grants that went to many volunteer fire departments, although perhaps in other years before 2008.

Goode said he also steered funds to several local sheriff’s departments through a program he designated as Southside Law Enforcement.

The taxpayers organization reports that Goodlatte, who said he has tried unsuccessfully to end Congress’s earmarks practice, sponsored $12.2 million in projects in the 6th District. Amherst County and Lynchburg are part of his district.

Goodlatte said that for the past two years he has not sponsored any earmark that would provide funds to a corporation.

“People don’t like them,” Goodlatte said, but as long as earmarks are being distributed his district is entitled to some of them.

Goodlatte’s earmarks in 2008 went to local governments and community programs, including Lynchburg’s central sewer system upgrade and the Poplar Forest museum program to preserve Thomas Jefferson’s heritage.

“An amendment was offered in Congress to try to remove” the Poplar Forest earmark, Goodlatte said. “It got the lowest support of any amendment that was offered to remove a project,” he said, because “the recognition of Thomas Jefferson’s place in history is very strong.”

Goode’s defense-related earmarks totaled $14.4 million in a database compiled by Taxpayers for Common Sense. Several of those earmarks focused on research being done in Charlottesville and Danville, both in the 5th District, or at Virginia Tech.

The Sperry Marine project to improve shipboard navigation capabilities deserves funding because “our Navy needs to stay competitive with the Chinese,” in terms of building affordable technology within the United States and also in the face of China’s upgrading its own navy, Goode said.

Technology development “is the only way we can stay competitive with China, and hope China doesn’t steal it too quick,” Goode said. “Sperry Marine is an example of a company that does that work for the Navy, and there are several of them in the Charlottesville area,” Goode said.

Another Goode earmark appears in the taxpayer group’s database as benefiting a company in Torrance, Calif., but its research is being done in the Danville area at the local airport and at Virginia International Raceway.

The research focuses on robotic controls for unmanned aircraft, and also for remote-controlled land vehicles that can be used in warfare. Virginia Tech is participating in the research, Goode said.

The drone aircraft “will fly over an area in Iraq to see what the enemy is doing, and sometimes the enemy will hear that aircraft and shoot at it. That gives our soldiers an opportunity to shoot at them,” Goode said.

Another Goode earmark, for $2.4 million, involves gathering data on missiles owned by other countries. Virginia Tech would participate in that program too, he said.

“I don’t know how far that has gotten,” Goode said.

It’s a Defense Department project that wasn’t funded in the budget proposed by the president.

The Defense Department “gets an amount” in the proposed federal budget, Goode said, “but then there are some things that are not funded within the budget and yet they think they are good ideas. If they can get it funded through the legislative process, they like to do that,” he explained.

Taxpayers for Common Sense said that practice is one of the reasons earmarks are often criticized — Congress circumvents the standard budgetary process to bestow what appears to be favors on campaign contributors.

Goode said the U.S. Constitution gives the House of Representatives the power to raise and spend money, and therefore the practice is appropriate. Presidents have usurped Congress’ authority through their budgetary powers, Goode said, and earmarks such as these are a way to reassert Congress’ role, he said.