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Was pro-park also pro-pork?
November 7, 2005
By Alicia Mundy
Seattle Times Washington bureau
WASHINGTON — Chris Rogers still can't believe that $500,000 in federal money for the Seattle Art Museum's waterfront sculpture park became ground zero in the Great Pork Battle of '05.
Rogers, who directs capital projects for the museum, found the Olympic Sculpture Park caught in the crossfire last month between two senators known as The Incredible Hulk and Dr. Tom.
"It was crazy, the entire Senate focused on this park," he said.
The money survived — for now — after Sen. Patty Murray strong-armed fellow Democrats to preserve the park's grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Murray, her staff says, just did what she had to do. But now budget watchdogs in D.C. are calling Murray the "Queen of Pork."
"She is by far the most influential woman in the history of Congress on spending priorities," said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a bipartisan budget-review group. "She has become one of the toughest players in an old-boys club."
On Oct. 20, Rogers' morning began with an unnerving call from the Washington, D.C., offices of Preston Gates & Ellis, the Seattle-based law and lobbying firm that represents the art museum. The $85 million park, for which ground was broken in June, is part of the museum's $180 million expansion program.
A Preston Gates lobbyist told Rogers that Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican and physician from Oklahoma, had just offered amendments in the Senate to cut "pork" from the budget. Coburn, whose Web site says "Come for Coffee with Dr. Tom," had singled out the sculpture garden's $500,000 grant as one of several unnecessary items.
Coburn also fingered $223 million for Alaska's "bridge to nowhere" that would link Ketchikan to an island where 50 people live. The bridge is a pet project of one of the most powerful men in the Senate, Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. He sometimes wears a tie featuring a picture of his cartoon hero, The Incredible Hulk.
Coburn's proposed cuts went down 82-15 on the bridge and 86-13 on the sculpture park. Pundits cited Stevens' power as the main reason for Coburn's trouncing.
But the surprise factor was Murray, acting as Stevens' enforcer, say some consumer groups and Coburn's office. Murray took to the Senate floor and threatened other Democrats with a loss of their own special projects back home.
Why? Though Stevens is a Republican and Murray a Democrat, they are both "appropriators," members of the Senate Appropriations Committee that decides where the federal pot of money will go.
"We have Democrats, Republicans and appropriators," Ashdown said. "That is the third party, and they will stick with themselves."
"She is in The Pig Book every year," said Tom Schatz, whose organization, Citizens Against Government Waste, publishes an annual list of "pork" programs.
Coburn's spokesman, John Hart, said his boss's overwhelming defeat was the result of the "culture of pork" in Congress.
He said tough tactics by senators such as Murray aren't uncommon behind closed doors, but they don't usually surface. "The fact that she went down on the floor and issued a specific verbal threat was extraordinary," he said.
Murray's chief of staff, Rick Desimone, said Murray and other senators just wanted to let Coburn know "that this wasn't going to be a very constructive debate."
Budget-watchdog groups hoped Coburn's amendment would pass, with a coalition of Democrats and Republicans. In a good piece of stagecraft, Stevens threatened to resign on the Senate floor over the bridge issue. But he already had the votes to stop Coburn.
Murray is "unapologetic" for her role in blocking Coburn's move, Desimone said. As an appropriator, he said, "She is a strong advocate for her state's interests and will use the tools available to her to advance those interests."
And, though there will be more pressure to chop arts and other programs as the federal budget deficit mounts, few senators want to support a precedent that one of their own projects can be singled out, Desimone said.
One of the four Democrats supporting Coburn, Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, is now using his "anti-pork" vote in stump speeches in New Hampshire, as he prepares to run for president.
But the Seattle sculpture park isn't pork, its advocates say. The project will revitalize a neglected portion of the waterfront, reuse contaminated land and strengthen the seawall, proponents say.
"Every parking lot and low-rise within three blocks of the area is now being developed," said Rogers, citing the potential increase in city revenues. "Sen. Murray had it right when she asked what a senator from Oklahoma was doing talking about a Seattle project."
The Senate has passed the funding bill that included the park and is awaiting action by the House.
However, Murray's battle with Coburn continues. Murray has been pushing the federal Food and Drug Administration to issue a long-delayed decision on whether the Plan B contraceptive pill can be sold without a prescription. An FDA advisory board supported over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill in 2003.
Coburn, a social conservative, opposes selling Plan B over the counter.
On Oct. 26, six days after the pork tempest, Murray proposed an amendment to another bill to investigate the FDA handling of the Plan B approval process.
Coburn countered immediately, threatening to add a secondary amendment to investigate the FDA's approval of the abortion pill RU-486 in 2000.
Murray's amendment lies in legislative limbo.
Senator Tom Coburn's activity on the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security
340 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-2254 Fax: 202-228-3796
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