WEEK IN REVIEW: WASHINGTON, D.C.

Sunday, July 1, 2007 | 7:09 a.m.

WASHINGTON - Nevada's Republican members of Congress dodged a little friendly fi re last week in their efforts to bring the bacon home to their districts.

Reps. Jon Porter and Dean Heller were trying to win special funding requests called earmarks as part of the $27 billion Interior and environment appropriations bill.

But Republican budget hawks were having none of it. They were out in full force threatening to block some of the 200 pet projects in the bill, including those of Porter and Heller.

Earmarks got a bad name under the Republican- controlled Congress when the volume skyrocketed, helping to create unprecedented lobbying industry and fueling some of the biggest corruption scandals Washington has seen in years.

Since Republicans lost power in fall they have been trying to defl ect attention to Democrats, especially after the House leadership declined to immediately make public all spending requests.

When the Interior Department's appropriations bill came up last week with $113 million in earmarks, the anti-earmark czars took aim. The last Interior bill under Republicans had 1,300 requests, totaling nearly $1 billion.

Among the 100-plus earmarks singled out was the $212,000 Porter was seeking to help fund a wastewater treatment study in Overton, just north of Lake Mead , as well as $500,000 Heller sought to improve a wastewater system in Fallon.

"Every earmark request submitted is for a worthwhile cause," Porter spokesman Matt Leffi ngwell said. "This is how you get federal funds back in your district."

This is also how members of Congress curry favor with locals, which is especially helpful for Porter, who always faces a diffi cult reelection in his evenly split district.

In fact, one Republican aide joked that the Republican Study Committee, the caucus of conservative House members that rails against earmarks, should be renamed the Really Safe Congressional Seat committee.

Porter has submitted 80 earmark requests this year - but like the other members of the Nevada delegation, he declines to make them public unless they are approved. Porter says there's no sense talking about them until they are backed by federal dollars.

The truth is, the Nevadans in Congress don't want to broadcast what they are requesting in case it doesn't come through - they would get constituents' hopes up and look ineffective.

Ultimately, chief earmark foe Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Tex as, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, relented. Debate on each of his objections would have stretched toward the end of the week.

By midweek, as the $27 billion spending bill passed , 272-155, Nevada's Republicans started dashing out news releases trumpeting their successes.

"This water treatment system is essential to the health and safety of the residents of Fallon," Heller said in a statement.

"I am proud to have secured funding for a project that the community of Overton desperately needs," Porter said in a statement.

And Washington was able to get back to business as usual.

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