Saturday, May 30, 2009
John "Pay-to-Play" Murtha
An investigation by the advocacy group Common Cause has determined that members of a key House defense subcommittee in 2008 allocated more than $350 million in military contracts to companies that had contributed handsomely to congressional representatives. Leading the way was Congressman John Murtha (D-PA), chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, who funneled $166.5 million in defense contracts to some of his largest campaign contributors.
A key example was Concurrent Technologies, a tax-exempt corporation that manages the National Defense Center for Environmental Excellence (NDCEE), and a contributor of more than $12,000 to Murtha. According to Common Cause, the NDCEE was started with a $5 million earmark from Murtha in 1991 and has received in excess of $670 million in federal contracts since then to promote antipollution technologies for the military. The only problem is that the Defense Department has had little use for NDCEE’s work, according to media reports.
But Murtha—dubbed the “poster boy for play-to-pay politics” by Common Cause—was not alone in rewarding contractors supportive of congressional campaigns. Other members of the subcommittee were responsible for doling out almost $190 million in contracts to defense giants like General Dynamics, Raytheon, L-3 Communications, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing.
Common Cause has asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate Murtha and
two of his colleagues, Rep. James Moran (D-VA) and Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-IN), for allegedly steering millions of dollars of earmarks to a now-defunct lobbying firm staffed by former Murtha aides.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
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