Breakfast for a Champion: John Murtha keeps his hand out

Each spring in the House of Representatives the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee approves its version of the mammoth Pentagon spending bill, taking the opportunity as it does so to quietly award billions of dollars worth of grants (known as earmarks) to well-connected defense companies. And every year, shortly before the bill is approved, Congressman John Murtha (D., Penn.), a powerhouse on that subcommittee, holds a major fund-raising event that rakes in big bucks from firms hoping for federal money for himself.

I recently obtained a copy of the invitation to a Murtha fund-raiser that was held on May 10 of this year—exactly two weeks before the House version of the Pentagon bill was finalized. The event, held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Arlington, Virginia, was given the cute name of “Breakfast for a Champion” and honored Murtha's “Lifetime of Major-League Service to Country.”

The 102-member Host Committee for the fund-raiser was comprised almost entirely of defense lobbyists and top officials from military firms. The suggested price of admission to the event: $2,500 for Political Action Committees and $1,000 for individuals. A bargain . . . if you're selling weapons systems to the government.

Northrop Grumman was represented on the Host Committee by at least five lobbyists, while Lockheed Martin, United Technologies, and Boeing each had at least three. Lockheed's hired guns included Greg Dahlberg, former staff director of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and former undersecretary of the Army, while Boeing had Letitia White, a former top appropriations staffer (who soon afterwards attracted unwanted attention from federal investigators).

Plenty of folks from smaller lobby shops and contractors were also listed as sponsors of the event. Particularly conspicuous on the Host Committee were four lobbyists from the PMA Group, one of Murtha's largest overall campaign-funders. Among them were Paul Magliocchetti, who previously worked with Murtha on the subcommittee, and Dan Cunningham, who, according to Hill sources, is Murtha's unofficial driver and glorified gofer.

Four PMA Group clients were listed as members of the Host Committee. There was Mark Newman, CEO of DRS Technologies; Jay Reddy, founder of ProLogic; Brian Boyle, vice president of Advanced Acoustic Concepts; and Dan DeVos, president of Concurrent Technologies Corporation. DeVos's firm was founded with earmarks facilitated by Murtha and has continued to thrive on federal money funneled to it with the help of the congressman. An article earlier this year in the Tribune-Democrat, Murtha's hometown paper, paraphrased DeVos as saying that “preparing for life after Murtha has been a real concern for about a decade,” and that the congressman has tried to impress “upon the area's defense industry leaders the need to wean themselves from his aid.”

Other hosts for the fundraiser included Jim Ervin of Ervin Technical Associates (firm chairman Joe McDade, a former congressman, was once charged with, but acquitted of, taking bribes from defense companies); two top officials from Kuchera Defense, one of Ervin's clients; and Jack McInnis and Ajay Maddam, respectively a lobbyist for and a leading executive of Optimal Solutions and Technology.

Afterward, according to public records and an analysis of the bill prepared by Taxpayers for Common Sense, all the firms and lobbyists mentioned here—and plenty of others from the Host Committee—received big bucks from Murtha's subcommittee. To cite just a few examples: Concurrent Technologies got $5 million for a Navy project (the amount was later cut in half during the House-Senate conference of the bill), Kuchera Defense received $1.5 million for a bio-war related program, and DRS Technologies won at least $6 million from four separate earmarks.

On Monday, Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Congressman David Obey, the incoming chairmen of the full Appropriations Committees, said they would impose a moratorium on earmarking until a reform program had been put in place. This is inspiring rhetoric, but I'd be surprised if the Democrats crack down too hard on the practice. After all, Byrd is one of history's most spectacular porkbarrelers, who once won a Coast Guard facility for landlocked West Virginia and has famously remarked, “You may as well slap my wife as take away my transportation funding.”

One thing is certain: Murtha will be fighting earmark reform every step of the way, and so will his friends on his fundraising Host Committee. Last year, Murtha was simply the ranking minority member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. In 2007, with the Democrats having won the House, he'll be the subcommittee chairman. I'd bet that Murtha's fundraiser next spring will be better attended and more rewarding than this year's affair—at least for those who can afford to come.

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