Still? Republicans are taking on sacred cows like Medicare and cutting scores of other programs; last week alone the House voted to kill low-income energy-assistance aid and summer youth employment. In that climate, how could “pork” be faring so well? Because shrewd lobbyists and agency heads have come up with ingenious ways to preserve beloved programs. Some of their tactics:
Few agencies seemed as imperiled as the National Endowment for the Arts, long denounced by conservatives for bankrolling degenerate art. That was before the NEA cannily funded the Piney Woods Opry Folk Festival in Abita Springs, La., in the district of House Appropriations Committee chairman Bob Livingston. Arts supporters tried to embarrass Livingston by generating press stories about how his anti-NEA posture was harming banjo-lovin’ constituents. Though he claimed to be unmoved, the chairman backed off plans to wipe out the endowment, opting instead for a phaseout that gives the NEA a shot at survival in the Senate.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich has made it clear that those seeking favors must first demonstrate loyalty to the broad GOP agenda. That’s why the Christian Coalition, which wants to promote school prayer, worked so hard last winter to pass such spiritually neutral bills as tort reform and deregulation. No one, though, went further to help Newt than Greg Laughlin, the congressman from southern Texas. In June he switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party. Suddenly, perks fell his way. In the fine print of the Interior appropriations bill, for instance, there was a waiver from the Clean Water Act allowing a golf course to be built on wetlands in Laughlin’s district.
Floating in at $30.4 billion over five years, the space station was thought to be among the most vulnerable big-ticket items. Last year it survived by only a few votes. But hard-nosed budget cutters went soft when they saw actor Tom Hanks and astronaut Jim Lovell, the fictional and real-life heroes of Apollo 13, marching the halls of the Capitol last month. A few days later, the House voted overwhelmingly to fund the space station. The National Endowment for the Arts has tried using star power, too. Melanie Griffith lobbied in its behalf in a tight white Versace suit and ankle bracelet. In lieu of etchings, Newt eagerly showed her the Tyrannosaurus rex skull he has in his office. NEA supporters think the visit is another reason the agency has survived so far.
They’re not supposed to, but it’s an open secret that government agencies regularly spend public dollars lobbying for their own preservation. One hapless bureaucrat at the Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy recently made the mistake of laying it out in writing, as bureaucrats are wont to do. The 12-page battle plan instructed outside lobbyists which lawmakers to pressure and coached congressmen on what to write in their “Dear Colleague” letters. The agency, an offshoot of the SBA that funds esoteric studies on business practices, says the lobbying plan was never followed. But at least one of its recommendations was carried out to great effect. The National Federation of Independent Businesses mounted a postcard campaign that saved the $6 million government department.
It may not make much sense for one arm of government to subsidize the tobacco industry while another tries to discourage smoking. But Philip Morris led all contributors to the GOP in January and February, followed closely by RJR Nabisco and U.S. Tobacco. Last month two dozen lawmakers from tobacco states met in Majority Leader Dick Armey’s office to demand that amendments to kill tobacco subsidies be kept off the floor (since they probably would pass). Armey, usually known for his aggressiveness in skewering wasteful subsidies, told them he understood. The key anti-tobacco amendments have not yet been spotted.
The system encourages spending instead of saving, as Rep. Brownback put it, because members of Congress see more political risk in cutting their constituents’ programs than in enlarging the deficit. Brownback may be disgusted by this, but he isn’t immune. A colleague offered an amendment recently to cut subsidies to rich farmers. Brownback voted no.
