Well, this is interesting. The Politico reports Republican Rep. Pete Sessions R- TX, normally a harsh critic of pork barrel spending, has helped a company in his district receive $1.6 million for research into dirigibles (we still research dirigibles?). Expect, get this, the company has never done anything dirigible related. I would guess most people have never done anything dirigible related, but then again most people haven’t applied for $1.6 million to research them.
This is one of those red flag earmarks that leads me to question how it got approved in the first place? The company had to apply for the earmark, didn’t the Congressman’s office dig a little deeper and investigate whether it was justified? Instead of backtracking, Session’s spokeswoman has mounted a defense on the grounds it creates jobs in Sessions’ district. First of all, just because a project creates jobs isn’t sufficient justification for an earmark, an opponent of pork should know that, and second, the company it seems is actually based 300 miles outside of Sessions’ district.
Disturbingly, there are some classic hallmarks of congressional pork corruption associated with this case. The company used a lobbyist who used to be an aide for Rep. Sessions to obtain the earmark. Conflict of interest anyone? Also, one of the company’s owners donated $5,000 to Sessions’ PAC in 2007. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, politicians distributing earmarks to individuals who have given them significant amounts of money is incredibly wrong. It is corrupt and should be illegal. The Congressman should do the right thing and revoke this earmark on those grounds alone.
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