Lawmakers look to bring home pork

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, July 5, 2000 | 11:32 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Millions of dollars hang in the balance for Nevada as Congress dives into its annual spending spree.

It's appropriations season on Capitol Hill -- that time of year when lawmakers often turn their attention from making laws to spending money. Lawmakers have until the fiscal year's end on Sept. 30 to finish -- and fight over -- 13 multibillion-dollar appropriations bills.

Congress members are off this week for a July Fourth vacation, but next week they will continue tackling the bills and scrambling to funnel money to their states.

Among the Nevada-specific projects tucked into the bills: $11 million for a new Hoover Dam bridge to ease traffic congestion, $4 million to keep a high-speed train proposal on track, $5 million for housing at Nellis Air Force Base and $250,000 for a new bike and walking path in Henderson.

"Some may say that this is pork, but these dollars begin with taxpayers in Nevada, and they should come back to the taxpayers in Nevada," Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said.

Included in the Nevada money that has not been secured this year: $15 million for lands restoration for a Delaware-size swath of the state charred by 1999 fires. The money initially was included in an emergency spending bill, but Senate leaders quietly removed it to decrease the bill's total cost. However, New Mexico got $661 million for fire cleanup.

"Rehabilitating federal lands from last summer's (Nevada) fires is no less deserving of attention than other natural disasters in New Mexico or North Carolina," Gov. Kenny Guinn wrote in a letter to congressional leaders June 28.

But two days later the money was axed, and now Nevada's Congress members have to slip the money in somewhere else, such as the Interior Department bill.

"We think we have the best chance of getting the money compared with other states, just because of the size of the fire," said David Cherry, spokesman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The appropriations process allows lawmakers the chance to boast about bringing money home.

Democratic Sen. Richard Bryan's top priority is funneling money from land sales in Clark County to Las Vegas Wash restoration. Lake Mead "is the source of drinking water for the vast amount of people in the Las Vegas area. We are losing that wetlands and the properties of filtration that they provide."

For instance, Reid, Gibbons and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., all took some credit for slipping several projects into the defense appropriations bill, including $5 million for housing 50 military families at Nellis Air Force Base. The base's aging housing is no longer sufficient, officials say. Both representatives hailed their effort to secure $20 million in flood control projects for Las Vegas.

"We can't allow for loss of life and millions of dollars in loss of property because we have not adequately funded our flood problem in Southern Nevada," Berkley said.

Berkley is also chasing $4.5 million to design cleaner-running buses; $2.9 million for "smart signs" technology in North Las Vegas along Las Vegas Boulevard and Interstate 15; and $640,000 for after-school programs at Sunrise Acres Elementary, Roy Martin Middle School and Desert Pines High School.

This year Reid's top priorities are $10.5 million for Lake Tahoe projects. He also wants to slip $50,000 into the Interior bill to increase patrols and develop a plan that would protect ancient petroglyphs southwest of Las Vegas.

Reid also is looking for money for alternative energy programs, but it's not clear how much -- or if -- Congress would fund that.

"Solar, wind and geothermal energy is the future of this country," Reid said. "Those resources are plentiful in Nevada."

Reid is one of 28 members on the powerful Appropriations Committee, which controls the Senate purse strings. Because of his position, Reid tends to be the state's top money grabber, observers say.

"I don't think there is any question that in terms of appropriations, Reid is key to Nevada getting not only its fair share, but trying to get some extras," Nevada lobbyist Mike Pieper said.

Pieper tracks various Nevada monies. One pot that seems in peril is a specific slice of the Labor/Health and Human Services/Education appropriations bill that allocates money to various specialized aid programs for children and seniors, Pieper said. Nevada last year got $11 million as part of that special expenditure, but some lawmakers are threatening to cut the programs for all states by 75 percent.

"The good news is, with a lot of these fights, we're not alone," Pieper said. "Other states are in the same boat."

Several transportation appropriations projects for Nevada seem certain. One sets aside $11 million for eventual construction of a $200 million Hoover Dam bypass bridge. The four-lane crossing roughly 2.5 miles south of the traffic-clogged Hoover Dam bridge has not been officially approved; an environmental study on the site is due this summer.

Another $4 million has been set aside for continued development of a high-speed train proposal that would eventually link Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission needs the money to continue competing for $950 million in federal money in a bid process with six other proposals around the nation.

Nevada's federal highway money -- about $205 million proposed for next year, plus between $10 million and $12 million for special projects -- is wrapped in the transportation appropriations bill. That money is essentially guaranteed each year by a formula that relies on the amount of federal gas tax collected in the state. States are supposed to get most of that tax money back for their highways.

Budgets for federal operations in the state also are at stake. For instance, Nellis Air Force Base outside Las Vegas is angling for a piece of the Air Force's requested $71.2 billion budget. About $69 million of the Clark County School District's $2.5 billion in annual revenue is federal money, mostly for subsidized lunches and programs for poor children.

And the Bureau of Land Management wants $46.3 million for Nevada, up $1.5 million from the current fiscal year.

The BLM manages roughly 68 percent of Nevada land. The agency, which faces increased responsibilities in the fast-growing West, is asking Congress for nearly $1.5 billion, a $141 million increase.

"There are a lot of pressures on public lands that are new," BLM spokesman Rem Hawes said. "A lot of this is the new nature of the West -- more people are working on and using (public) land."