Of Helicopters, Pork, And An Age-Old Argument
By Marty Toohey
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, 2002–It’s only seven extra helicopters.
It’s only $116.5 million in a $355 billion defense budget.
And it’s seven extra choppers that the Army is delighted to have, especially with so much dysfunctional equipment and a war brewing.
But the inclusion in the military’s budget of seven extra Black Hawk UH-60 helicopters, manufactured in Connecticut, is also the crystallization of an old argument between fiscal responsibility groups and policymakers – an argument about congressmen’s power to send federal dollars to their home state, a power its critics derisively call pork barreling.
Whatever you call it, the result of an appropriations request made by Connecticut lawmakers on Capitol Hill is seven more helicopters than the Army requested in this year’s budget, with the $116.5 million the choppers will cost going to Connecticut helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky, whose parent company, United Technologies Corp., contributes heavily to nearly every member of the state’s delegation.
The Army calls the extra helicopters an unexpected bonus. The Connecticut delegation calls them a boost for national defense and the state economy. Watchdog groups call them pork from politicians to the companies that bankrolled their elections. Defense experts call them all of these things.
They also call it business as usual.
“This is pretty typical” and non-controversial, said Tom Donnelly, a defense analyst with the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank. “There is no doubt that the Connecticut delegation, and especially Senator (Joseph) Lieberman, have an influential voice in getting money for their home state. But at the same time, it’s not like they made the Pentagon bend over and cry” for more helicopters.
Indeed not. In their budget request, the Army asked for 12 such helicopters, and receives about 10 to 15 of them annually, according to an official in the Army’s force development department. The official also said the Army is 90 helicopters away from fulfilling a contract to purchase 1,680 Black Hawks.
Lieberman, a Democrat, requested the seven additional choppers in this year’s budget, and with President Bush signing the military budget Wednesday, the Army this year will receive 19 of what Donnelly calls “one of the most useful tools they can have.”
“This is really a good deal,” said Army spokesman Major Rudy Burwell.
But one group crying out is Citizens Against Government Waste, a watchdog group that says it’s ridiculous for Congress to spend more money than the military asks for.
“We have very smart people at the Pentagon to determine what we need to defend this country,” said David Williams, vice president of policy for the organization. “I’m sorry, but members of Congress don’t have that expertise.”
Even more egregious, he said, was $3.29 billion appropriated for 15 C-17 Globemaster III cargo planes, which are constructed mainly in California. The military didn’t request the planes, and the House didn’t include them in its version of the defense budget. But California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, added the extra planes and the extra money for her state, Williams said.
Feinstein’s office did not return calls for comment.
“It’s trying to curry favor back home,” Williams said. “This is money that could be used to raise the salaries of soldiers living on food stamps. It seems to me like their biggest concern is defending the interests of the state’s businesses instead of the country.”
But that’s how these things work, defense experts say.
Donnelly said that sometimes, to keep its total requests down, the Pentagon will ask for less than it wants in areas where it has a sympathetic ear, such as Feinstein on the Appropriations Committee or Lieberman as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Airland Subcommittee.
“There’s a certain ritual aspect to this,” Donnelly said. “They might say, ‘We’ll only ask for a dozen Black Hawks because we know we could get more.’ ”
The extra helicopters seem to be a hit in military circles, including the Pentagon, which has given some brutal assessments of Army programs recently, like the canceled $11 billion Crusader mobile artillery system that Oklahoma’s congressional delegation is still fuming about losing.
“We certainly haven’t heard anything negative about the added helicopters” within the Defense Department, said Pentagon spokeswoman Susan Hansen, who deferred to the Army for an official statement but said, “We’re certainly delighted with the president’s budget.”
In total, House appropriators added $619 million to the Pentagon’s request, while their Senate counterparts added $768 million, some of which overlapped with the House bill. An additional $38.8 million was added in the conference between the two chambers. The defense appropriations bill – which included the Black Hawks – is $355 billion, and total defense spending increased $45.9 billion from last year’s budget, including an average 4.1 percent raise for military personnel, well above the current inflation rate of about 1.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The other Pentagon spending bill that Bush signed Wednesday, the military construction appropriations bill, is $10.5 billion.
It’s the largest military spending increase since President Reagan and the Star Wars ballistic missile defense program.
Lieberman and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) aren’t shy about touting the money headed to their state. A joint release from their offices details $15 billion in projects either mostly or entirely done in Connecticut, the bulk of which went to defense contractors Electric Boat, Pratt & Whitney, Goodrich and Sikorsky.
The 15 Globemaster IIIs were mentioned in the release because Pratt & Whitney, another United Technologies subsidiary, makes their engines.
The Connecticut delegation usually divvies up appropriations requests. A spokeswoman for Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-3), who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, said office policy is to not comment on appropriations requests, but also said, “Rosa fights hard for the Black Hawk.”
Published in The New Britain Herald, in Connecticut.
