WASHINGTON - Although Georgia doesn't wield the same influence it once held over the federal budget, lawmakers from across the state got a piece of the pie as Congress wrapped up annual spending bills with a massive catch-all package this week.
Reps. Jack Kingston of Savannah and Sanford Bishop of Albany - Georgia's only appropriations committee members - fared particularly well, taking home money for local law enforcement agencies, at-risk youth programs, water infrastructure and other projects. That's in addition to millions of dollars in defense-related spending they won in a military spending bill last month.
With help from Sens. Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss, Bishop took home $6 million, for example, to finish construction of a new Patriot Park museum and visitors' complex at Fort Benning.
Kingston secured $6.4 million for beach renourishment on Tybee Island, again with help from Isakson and Chambliss.
Rep. Jim Marshall of Macon secured $159,800 for the Twiggs County Sheriff's Department, among others, while Reps. Hank Johnson of Lithonia and Lynn Westmoreland of Grantville helped win $188,000 for Rockdale County's efforts to combat methamphetamine use.
A handful of lawmakers, including Reps. Tom Price of Roswell, David Scott of Atlanta and John Lewis of Atlanta, won $300,000 for water and wastewater improvements in the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, which includes Hall County.
Rep. Phil Gingrey of Marietta teamed up with Kingston, Chambliss and Isakson to get $3.2 million for Suwanee-based FATS Inc. for a simulated combat training system used by the Army National Guard.
Isakson and Chambliss, meanwhile, secured $600,000 to repair public facilities at the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and $2 million to buy public land for the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.
Nationally, local "earmarks" accounted for about $7.4 billion of the total $555 billion spending in the year-end spending bill that passed this week, according to a review by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington-based group that tracks such spending. Tack on the separate defense spending measure that cleared in November, and the earmark tally more than doubles.
Critics contend that earmarks allow influential lawmakers - mainly those with coveted seats on the appropriations committees - to circumvent the normal budget process and thrust pet priorities to the front of the line.
But Kingston, a Republican who has advocated reforming the spending process and cutting the federal budget, defended his efforts to secure money for his district.
Under the current system, he said, he seeks to hold down the top-line budget level, then fights for local projects within that budget.
"Do you want the bureaucrats directing the spending or do you want the elected officials who know the local issues better to direct it?" he said. "There's a big constitutional argument behind it that Congress does have the right to direct spending. The question becomes how much should they direct."
Watchdog groups such as Taxpayers for Common Sense had not finished tallying the thousands of earmarks in the bill. But with just two appropriators in its 15-member delegation, Georgia's clout in the process appears to have faded compared to eras when Georgians such as House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Sen. Sam Nunn and Sen. Richard Russell held top leadership posts.
Friday
January 24th, 2025
9:49AM
