Senators load pet projects onto defense, terrorism bill

WASHINGTON -- Senators have shoehorned nearly $400 million in pet projects into a bill financing the Pentagon and anti-terrorism efforts, including money for Marine shirts made in Massachusetts and communications software being developed in Alabama.

Many of the provisions will undoubtedly die when House-Senate bargainers craft a compromise version of the bill, perhaps next week. As usual, defenders asserting that the projects will serve the national interest are pitted against critics claiming they are pork for senators' constituents.

Either way, their inclusion underlines that a sense of business as usual pervades the Capitol, even as lawmakers shape legislation that members of both parties have called crucial: A $20 billion anti-terrorism package attached to a wartime $318 billion Pentagon spending bill.

Congress passed legislation Thursday authorizing spending for the Defense Department and military activities of the Energy Department. Lawmakers still are at work on the separate appropriations bill, which must be passed before the money may be spent.

The Senate approved the overall measure in the wee hours of Dec. 8. Moments earlier, senators used a series of voice votes -- and virtually no debate -- to add 103 amendments, many dealing with parochial projects.

'Christmas tree goodies'

Daniel Dwyer, vice president for research at the University of Maine in Orono, Maine, says more than money is at stake. The bill has $4 million for his school's research on hand-held computerized maps to be used by soldiers, won by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

"This is going to do something important for our folks on the battlefield," Dwyer said.

That's not the view of the conservative Citizens Against Government Waste.

"The Senate has never been a model of moderation when it comes to pork-barrel spending," said David Williams, the group's vice president for policy.

Sen. John McCain, who frequently rails against hometown projects, said the defense bill "is going to have more Christmas tree goodies on it than the North Pole."

The Senate's 11th-hour amendments included:

$2 million to buy fleece pullovers for the Marines from Malden Mills Industries Inc., the company that kept paying its employees after a catastrophic 1995 fire, sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, won $5 million for research conducted in part by the Cleveland Clinic on beaming images of wounded soldiers to doctors who are elsewhere.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., got $10 million for work done partly by North Dakota State University on a hand-held communications system that could be used by covert operatives.