Freshman U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., is asking for nearly $67 million in "earmarks" for federal government spending.

While that might seem like a huge figure — especially in a political climate in which the congressional earmark has become something of a dirty word — spokesmen for national taxpayer watchdog groups say $67 million is actually pretty modest compared to what some members of Congress try to snare for constituents.

Earmarks are spending proposals sponsored by individual congressmen. Critics say the procedure has led to pet projects folded into money bills, with success varying according to the member's clout and seniority.

Luján's requests vary from police radios in Bloomfield ($270,000) to a $3.6 million overpass in Clovis, to rehabilitating 30 low-income houses in Pojoaque Pueblo ($590,000), to a $508,088 appropriation for an electronic records system for Presbyterian Health Services.

Earmark projects in the Santa Fe area include $750,000 for "the protection, preservation, and interpretation of the 24 nationally significant archeological and historic sites in and around the Galisteo Basin."

Luján also seeks $3 million for the Bureau of Land Management to protect and provide better public access to 280 acres of Canyon Ranch near La Cienega. A partnership including former Santa Fe City Councilor David Schutz is planning a 174-home residential project on about 1,300 acres in the Canyon Ranch area.

The requests were revealed last week when Luján complied with a new rule of the House of Representatives that requires members to post online their earmark requests for fiscal year 2010. New Mexico's other two representatives, fellow freshman Democrats Martin Heinrich and Harry Teague, also posted theirs on Web sites.

In the past, earmarks for the most part were done in secret. This year is the first time members have been required to publicly disclose their requests. Senators must list their earmarks later this year.

During last year's presidential campaign, Republican candidate John McCain, who as an Arizona senator has been critical of the procedure, promised that he would veto earmarks in the name of fiscal discipline. President Barack Obama also said he wants a budget process free of earmarks. But with the House members' newly published lists, that doesn't seem likely.

Two groups, The Sunlight Foundation and Taxpayers for Common Sense, scoured hundreds of congressional Web sites to compile spreadsheets of earmark listings.

"It isn't in the realm of the ridiculous," Steve Ellis, vice president of the Washington D.C.-based Taxpayers for Common Sense, said when asked about the sums in Luján's earmarks. "Some Congressmen requested a billion."

Neither Ellis' group nor The Sunlight Foundation have totaled up all the representatives' requests. But Bill Allison, a spokesman for The Sunlight Foundation, said Luján's total seemed about average.

"The only thing consistent among the various Web sites is inconsistency," the Taxpayers for Common Sense Web site says. "Some lawmakers put a link to the disclosures right on the home page, while others bury their requests under an electronic rock, forcing constituents to click through several pages under legislation, district initiatives, issues or some other general category. Once you get to the disclosures themselves, they take all manner of forms, from scores of actual letters to summary write-ups on the page. Some lawmakers have failed to include the requested amounts as directed. While others ... have posted all the requests their office received rather than just what they decided to request."

According to his Web site, Luján solicited applications from local communities, nonprofits and other interested and eligible entities.

Nearly a third of the $66,946,552 Luján is requesting — more than $21 million — would go to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for several projects around the district. Most of these appropriation requests deal with water and flood-control projects.

Many of his earmarks are for military purposes. The state and U.S. Army National Guards would get a total of $9 million for training equipment such as networking simulation training systems, Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle Virtual Trainers and Virtual Convoy Trainers. Cannon Air Force base near Clovis would get a big chunk also — $8.46 million, including $5.7 million to expand the base's wastewater-treatment plant.

While government agencies would get the lion's share of Luján's requests, some private nonprofits also are on the list.

These include a Taos group called Men Engaged in Nonviolence, set up to "engage at-risk boys in a variety of positive activities with volunteer adult male mentors"; a Florida-based organization called A Child Is Missing, which assists law enforcement agencies in New Mexico during the first few hours a child or an elderly adult is reported missing; Save the Children, which provides after-school literacy programs for children in rural communities; the National Association of Hispanic Nurses, which recruits Hispanic nurses; and The New Mexico Sheriff and Police Athletic League, which works with at-risk youth.

Both Ellis and Allison stressed that the projects listed by Luján and the other members of Congress are only requests, and many of them will not get funded.

Some of the requests, Ellis said, could end up in the president's budget.

Allison said the budget requests might be larger than in past years, when earmarks were done in secret.

In those days, a member of Congress could always say "I asked" to constituents and agencies that requested money, even if he or she didn't actually submit the request.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com.

ON THE WEB
Rep. Ben Ray Luján's earmarks: lujan.house.gov/appropriations-requests.shtml.