Los Alamos would get the lion's share of New Mexico's pork in the appropriations bill being debated today in the U.S. Senate, but Santa Fe would get only crumbs.

Earmarks — a method by which congressmen tack special appropriations onto spending bills — have been under fire as a way to fund "pork-barrel" projects without public scrutiny.

President Barack Obama pledged to reform the earmark process during last year's campaign, though he used the system as a Democratic senator from Illinois.

Now, his former presidential opponent, U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., says Obama will be a hypocrite if, as excepted, he signs the spending bill with 9,246 earmarks totaling $7.7 billion.

McCain recently ridiculed proposed earmarks such as:

• $2.1 million for the Center for Grape Genetics in New York.

• $1.7 million for pig odor research in Iowa.

• $200,000 for tattoo removal for gang members.

But while the Ominbus Appropriations Bill includes more than $222 million in earmarks for Los Alamos National Laboratory, Santa Fe is in line for only three projects, worth about $200,000:

• $100,000 for the Santa Fe Rape Crisis and Trauma Treatment Center, requested by U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Tom Udall, the former House member now serving in the Senate.

• $80,750 for the Santa Fe Teen Arts Center, requested by Udall.

• $27,000 to complete the Santa Fe Watershed Management Plan, also requested by Udall.

Diana McWilliams, executive director of the Santa Fe Rape Crisis and Trauma Treatment Center since December, said she only learned about the potential windfall last week.

She said the $100,000 would let the center train law-enforcement personnel and emergency first responders around the state to recognize post-traumatic stress disorder in themselves and in the people they encounter in their work.

"I was thrilled to find this out," she said. "We'd love to put another zero on this, but we won't get greedy. We're just real happy about that because it does give us a chance to really promote our trauma-treatment model."

Santa Fe fared better in 2007, when Udall became the first member of the state's congressional delegation to post his earmarks on his Web site:

• $4 million to upgrade the Santa Fe Canyon water-treatment plant.

• $1 million for new city buses.

• $900,000 for redevelopment of the Santa Fe Railyard.

• $500,000 to improve the city water-distribution system.

This time, the Los Alamos National Laboratory earmarks from Bingaman alone include:

• $97.2 million for LANL's Chemistry and Metallurgy Replacement Facility.

• $44.6 million to upgrade the nuclear-stockpile security system, including Los Alamos'.

• $19.3 million to rebuild the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center accelerator.

In addition, three of Bingaman's largest earmarks to non-LANL projects also are in the Los Alamos area:

• $4 million for operations and capital improvements to the Valles Caldera National Preserve.

• $3.178 million for construction and renovation of the Bandelier National Monument Visitor Center.

• $700,000 for improvements to the city of Española's wastewater plant.

Some of this year's earmarks to statewide programs may also benefit Santa Fe because the programs are based here or simply because it is one of the communities affected:

• $362,000 to the Institute of American Indian Arts for a "distance learning initiative" to Native American communities across New Mexico.

• $382,000 for continuation of a watershed study along the Rio Grande and its tributaries.

• $300,000 to the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department for a pilot program aimed at preventing juvenile crime.

In the past, congressmen publicized popular earmarks while keeping others under wraps. But lately, the New Mexico delegation has been issuing news releases on them.

Even former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who retired at the first of the year after six terms in the upper chamber, issued a release in February on his earmarks.

Domenici's earmarks, like Bingaman's, tilted toward the Los Alamos and Sandia labs plus the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad.

U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., was not in Congress last year, so he has no pending earmarks, but he said through a spokesman that he believes earmarks fund important projects.

"Luján is committed to job creation and community development, and he will seek support for worthy projects that further these goals," said in a written statement from his office. "The appropriations process in this Congress will reflect a strong commitment to transparency and accountability — every project that a member requests will be available for the public to see online."

In addition to earmarks, the Omnibus Appropriations Bill also contains $410 billion in operational funds for federal agencies for the current fiscal year that have been stalled since last October. The agencies have been operating on continuing resolutions that keep the funds at the same rate as last fiscal year.

If the bill is not passed by today, Congress would have to pass another continuing resolution to keep the government operating. But if the bill passes, both the operational funds and the special earmarks could be released as soon as President Obama signs it.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.