Komatsu Equipment Co Resident Field Mechanic Trades/Construction RANCHO RESORT MAINTANANCE POSITION Administrative & Professional Tucson Urban League CEO/President Administrative & Professional Jorgensen Brooks Group Counselor Finance and Accounting Charles E. Gillman Company Accounting Specialist Sales and Marketing Everready Glass Sales Reps Tucson RegionGiffords, in about-face, releases spending plansARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.14.2007
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords released Friday evening what she said was her complete list of federal "earmark" requests after refusing to do so last week.
The list of 42 projects, totaling nearly $327 million, was posted on her congressional Web site, and includes a single request for a $187 million in guided missiles for the Army. Many of the earmarks, submitted for fiscal year 2008, are for projects in the Democrat's Southeast Arizona district.
The $187 million missile request alone exceeds the $178 million total for all 61 requests made by neighboring Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who made his list public last week.
The posting on Giffords' Web site, however, does not include amounts for two significant military projects — one for the purchase of AMRAAM missiles for the Navy and another for Air Force development and procurement of the Miniature Air-Launched Decoy — which would push her total higher.
Even without those two military items, nearly $226 million — 69 percent of her known total — is for defense and defense contracting.
Giffords spokesman C.J. Karamargin said the reason the bulk of her requests are for military spending is because she is on the Armed Services Committee and has two military installations — Fort Huachuca and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base — in her district.
Giffords was not available for comment late Friday, after Karamargin informed the Star her request list was available.
He said there is no contradiction between her vote Thursday for a troop withdrawal from Iraq and her support for military spending.
"Being in support of a strong defense is one thing. Questioning how the war is being conducted is something different," he said.
The earmark process tacks spending projects onto House and Senate bills, rather than going through the normal appropriations process. Only a few dozen members of Congress have made their lists public.
At least 11 of Giffords' requests are for the same items Grijalva asked for, something Grijalva said could be expected since they both represent much of the city, Pima County and the area served by the University of Arizona, the intended beneficiaries of many of their requests.
It's unlikely all of Giffords requests will be funded, and the winners of federal funding won't be known for months.
In press releases sent out over the past two days, Giffords has noted preliminary approval of nine of her requests, including several of her joint requests with Grijalva, for significantly less than was sought.
For example, a request for $4 million for UA trauma center expansion netted $400,000, and a $3 million request for a UA diabetes program for American Indian, Hispanic and elderly populations in the Southwest landed $170,000.
The bulk of Giffords' requests are defense related, such as for the $187 million Javelin missile — her single largest item — which includes the notation the weapon is one of the Army's highest priorities.
"This request came from the Army's official unfunded-requirements list which contains the projects the Army would spend money on if it had addition resources," she says on her Web site.
Other big-ticket items include $20 million for drainage work in Tucson, which was also requested by Grijalva; $15 million for a Navy missile; $15 million total for two projects involving Unmanned Aerial Systems; and $5 million for the construction of a new chapel at Fort Huachuca.
There's also $5.25 million requested for expansion of the water-treatment facility in Marana; $12.36 million for improvements to a drainage ditch in Douglas; and $2 million to pay for monitoring of the San Pedro River.
If the request is approved, the Tucson Convention Center would receive $1 million for solar panels.
Unlike Grijalva, Giffords did not release the requests in their original format, as turned in to the speaker of the House, so two items do not include price tags. She also does not identify what specific companies could benefit from her requests.
In the posting on her Web site, she writes, "As one of the few Members of Congress to fully disclose the list of funding requests for my district, I believe that our government must be accessible to all Americans. In past years, the public did not know which federal projects had been championed by their U.S. Representative because requests were made anonymously behind closed doors."
Giffords declined an initial inquiry by the Star last week for her requests after Grijalva made his available.
And in an interview Monday with the Star editorial board, Giffords said, "I just don't think that releasing a list of earmarks is the best transparent way to explain to the people all the work that you're doing."
Before Friday, Giffords had said she would "release all the earmarks as they get funded. Just because I have a neighboring congressman who decides to do something, I don't necessarily feel pressure to do the same thing."
● Contact reporter Daniel Scarpinato at 307-4339 or dscarpinato@azstarnet.com.
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