The three finalists were chosen by CAGW staff from among the Porkers of the Month for 2006.

Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) | Sens. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.) | Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) 

Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) 

Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) was named Porker of the Month in April 2006 for abusing his position on the House Appropriations Committee by securing millions of dollars in earmarks that may have benefited him personally.  The New York Times (4/08/06) detailed how Rep. Mollohan has directed $250 million to five nonprofit organizations that he set up.  In response to the accusations, Rep. Mollohan surrendered his seat as ranking Democrat on the House Ethics Committee last April.

CAGW identified $480 million in pork projects added in the House or in conference committees for Rep. Mollohan's district since 1995.  More than half of his earmarks have gone to the five nonprofits, most of which depend almost entirely on government funding.  To run the organizations, Rep. Mollohan has recruited friends and former aides who then contribute to his political campaigns and family foundation.  Businesses that are awarded contracts through the nonprofits also make campaign contributions. 

The National Legal and Policy Center has filed a complaint challenging the accuracy of Rep. Mollohan’s financial disclosure forms.  The root question is whether a spike in Rep. Mollohan’s personal fortune had any connection to earmarks that he secured.  In one example, the complaint looks at whether Rep. Mollohan properly reported 27 condominiums in Washington, D.C., co-owned with a cousin whose business once benefited from a federal contract in Rep. Mollohan’s district.  On June 13, 2006, Rep. Mollohan filed two dozen corrections to his past six annual financial disclosure forms and called the errors “unintentional.”  However, the FBI is examining charges that Rep. Mollohan illegally benefited from the distribution of federal funds.

The New York Times described Rep. Mollohan's network of nonprofits as “plush.”  All but one of the nonprofits’ chief executives makes a salary that outpaced the $98,456 national average for nonprofit heads.  The Institute for Scientific Research fell into disarray after its chief executive resigned over his controversial $500,000 annual salary, paid for by federal earmarks.  The institute is also using $103 million of earmarked funds to erect a lavish headquarters replete with a sauna and spa in a former cow pasture.  As described by the Times, “The 57-member staff is barely large enough to fill a corner of the 600-plus capacity of the building.”  The Canaan Valley Institute, which is building a $33 million headquarters with earmarked funds, grew out of an effort to create a wildlife refuge near property that Rep. Mollohan owns.  

The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call (12/8/05) detailed how Rep. Mollohan has received campaign contributions from MZM, Inc.  The company’s former owner, Mitchell Wade, was at the heart of the bribery scandal that led to the resignation of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.).  Rep. Mollohan was quoted in the article as saying, “All I care about is supporting companies and [federal] programs that companies are doing in my Congressional district.” 

West Virginia ranked fourth in pork per capita in CAGW’s 2006 Congressional Pig Book, which identified 9,963 pork projects costing a record $29 billion in the 11 appropriations bills for fiscal 2006.  Rep. Mollohan received CAGW's "Molehill into a Mountain" Oinker Award for his $2.2 million in appropriations for the MountainMade Foundation, which promotes West Virginia arts and crafts on the Internet. 

Rep. Mollohan remains committed to his porcine ways.  Asked if he was going to change the way in which he directs federal tax dollars to the five nonprofit groups, Mollohan said he is “not going to change a bit . . . The real sentiment in Congress is to support the power of the purse.  It’s the principal tool by which it achieves a balance of power with the executive and judicial branches.  How else would members with water, sewer or street-paving projects, or with specific projects like the renovation of a senior center, get funds if they aren’t able to earmark funds?" (The Times West Virginian, 11/8/06).  The answer, of course, is that such projects are properly the domain of the private sector, nonprofit groups, and state and local governments.  Furthermore, CAGW has thoroughly debunked the “power of the purse” defense of earmarking as historically and constitutionally inaccurate. 

Rep. Mollohan also resisted efforts to make the budget process more transparent and accountable.  On December 8, 2006, he helped to defeat legislation (H.R. 6375) that would have required the Secretary of Defense to grade congressional earmarks with an annual report card.  Such a tool would help the public to determine whether pork projects are essential for national security or a wasteful diversion of defense dollars.  On September 14, 2006, Rep. Mollohan voted against an internal rule change (H. Res. 1000) that requires some earmarks and their sponsors to be identified in spending, tax, and authorization bills.  That resolution passed by a vote of 245-171.

Rep. Mollohan is Exhibit A in an appropriations process that is soaked with conflicts of interest and lends itself to abuse.  For directing earmarks to wasteful projects that have the effect of swelling his campaign coffers and possibly his personal wealth, for pledging to continue his pork addiction in the face of national scrutiny and an FBI investigation, and for opposing earmark reforms, Rep. Alan Mollohan is a nominee for CAGW's 2006 Porker of the Year. 

  

Sens. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.)

Mississippi Senators Thad Cochran (R) and Trent Lott (R) were named Porkers of the Month in May 2006 for adding $700 million for the “Railroad to Nowhere” to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2006 (H.R. 4929).  The Senate’s version of the bill for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and hurricane aid in the Gulf Coast cost $109 billion; President Bush requested $92.2 billion; and the House passed a $91.9 billion version.  Congress removed funding for the railroad in the final version of the bill, which cost $94.5 billion. 

The “Railroad to Nowhere” was one of dozens of earmarks tacked onto the Senate bill, including $3.9 billion for agricultural subsidies, $500 million for a corporate welfare bailout of Northrop Grumman, and $6 million for two Hawaii sugar plantations.  It came on the heels of the controversy over the $223 million earmark for Alaska's “Bridge to Nowhere” in the 2005 highway authorization bill. 

The railroad controversy arose after Hurricane Katrina destroyed a portion of the CSX rail line in Mississippi.  CSX spent $300 million to fix the line, and according to a company spokesperson, “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it.”  The $700 million would have been spent to divert the tracks a few miles to the north, making way for U.S. 90 to be rebuilt along the rail bed.  Sens. Cochran and Lott said the switch was necessary for safety reasons and to protect the track from future hurricanes.  However, The Washington Post reported that “much of the rail line along the Gulf Coast would remain in hurricane danger, and the proposed rerouting would affect only a small part.”  The Post noted that “Mississippi’s rail-accident rate from 2001 to 2005 reached a 30-year low.”

The real reason behind the proposed move appears to be economic.  The stretch of land along the railroad is prime real estate for tourism development.  As reported in the Post, the highway would be turned into a “beach boulevard” running through cities such as Biloxi.  The Governor’s Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal in Mississippi said the plan would encourage tourists to “spend more time strolling among the casinos and taking in the views.”

The “Railroad to Nowhere” is yet another reason for earmark and budget reform in Congress.  Members of Congress attach pet projects to emergency supplemental bills to elude the scrutiny of the normal budget process.  The federal government plays a legitimate role in rebuilding essential infrastructure in areas hit by natural disasters.  But relocating a newly-rebuilt rail line in order to help land developers is an abuse of the taxpayers’ trust. 

The Mississippi senators are no strangers to pork.  CAGW’s 2006 Congressional Pig Book ranks Mississippi sixth in pork per capita.  As former chairman and current ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Cochran is especially well-positioned to bring home the bacon.  Projects for Mississippi in the fiscal 2006 appropriations bills included $25 million for miscellaneous water sources in the Yazoo Basin; $1 million for the Alcorn State University Judicial Threat Analysis Center; and $300,000 for the National Center for Natural Products.

For fattening the deficit, classifying an unnecessary project as “emergency” spending, and failing to learn the lessons of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” in Alaska, Sens. Cochran and Lott are nominees for CAGW's 2006 Porker of the Year.    

   Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.)

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) was named Porker of the Month in November 2006 for helping to secure a record $2.3 billion federal loan for a railroad company that once employed him as a lobbyist.  

The loan guarantee from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) would allow the Dakota, Minnesota, and Eastern Railroad (DM&E) to expand and improve a rail line that is used primarily to transport coal from Wyoming to Minnesota.  In apparent anticipation of the loan, Sen. Thune was instrumental in increasing the FRA’s loan guarantee authority a whopping tenfold, from $3.5 billion to $35 billion, in the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2005.  DM&E paid Thune $220,000 in 2003 and 2004 to lobby for the loan before his election to the Senate. 

According to the strategic consulting firm BearingPoint, the loan would require an annual payment of $246 million, on top of a $15 million annual payment DM&E must already make on another loan.  Even if the rail upgrade increases DM&E’s current annual revenue of $200 million, the deal presents a poor credit risk to taxpayers, who will be forced to foot the bill if the company defaults.  A senior manager at BearingPoint stated, “This loan finances a project with many financial uncertainties, ultimately calling into question whether or not DM&E can repay the loan.”  

The DM&E loan is being compared to the $1.5 billion Chrysler bailout in 1980.  However, at least that expenditure was the subject of intense public and congressional debate; the DM&E loan has quietly moved through Congress thanks to behind-the-scenes lobbying and legislative maneuvers.

According to the FRA’s Railroad Safety Statistics Annual Report 2004, DM&E ranked last in safety among the nation’s 43 largest railroads.  DM&E’s CEO pointed to safety as a reason to support the railroad’s “rehabilitation.”  However, government handouts have failed to solve DM&E’s safety problems; its main track accident rate has escalated to eight times the national average since its last FRA loan of $233 million in 2003.

Furthermore, a government loan could adversely impact the marketplace.  The coal fields of Wyoming are already served by two railroads.  The president of a competing railroad said, “If the government allows non-market-based loans of this magnitude for certain carriers, that will have a negative effect on railroads’ ability and willingness to invest private capital” (The Los Angeles Times, 10/29/06).  Anytime the government picks winners and losers in the marketplace, the economy as a whole suffers.         

Responding to Sen. Thune's Porker of the Month award, the senator's communications director called CAGW, “the same out-of-touch group that criticized Senator Thune for his efforts to save Ellsworth (Air Force Base) and criticized our congressional delegation's efforts to provide drought relief to our farmers and federal incentives for ethanol production.”  In other words, Sen. Thune defends his special treatment for home-state interests by pointing to his long history of doing so.  After CAGW’s 2006 Congressional Pig Book ranked South Dakota 10th in pork per capita, Sen. Thune said, "Some in South Dakota would probably consider that a badge of honor" (Argus Leader, 04/10/06).     

Members of Congress are elected to represent their constituents.  But that does not mean seeking special privileges for certain constituents at the expense of everyone else.  Sen. Thune claims the railroad will “transform South Dakota’s economy for generations.”  First, his statement is an exaggeration; if the project’s benefits so vastly exceeded its costs, a federal loan would not be necessary.  Second, any jobs created by the railroad expansion will come at the expense of those adversely impacted by the project.  For example, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota claims the new tracks will hurt its ability to deliver quality patient care. 

For championing a loan guarantee that puts taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars, circumvents public debate, helps special interests at the expense of the overall economy, and rewards his former employer, Sen. John Thune is a nominee for CAGW's 2006 Porker of the Year.