Members of Congress have steered more than $60-million in earmarks in recent years to colleges and universities that employ their spouses and children, a Washington Post investigation has found.
In one example, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat of Texas, helped direct $5.25-million to the University of Houston while her husband was vice president for student affairs and vice chancellor for student affairs of the university system.
In another, Rep. Robert E. Andrews, a Democrat of New Jersey, helped secure $3.3-million for a scholarship program at Rutgers University at Camden’s School of Law, where his wife is an associate dean in charge of scholarships and special legal programs.
But the biggest beneficiary, by far, was the University of Mississippi, which received $45-million with the help of Sen. Roger F. Wicker, a Mississippi Republican whose wife works as coordinator of student services for the university’s Tupelo campus.
In many of the cases, the lawmakers told the Post that their efforts had been motivated by public interest, not personal gain.
Earmarks are the controversial grants that members of Congress allocate to favored constituents outside of the open competitions that federal agencies typically use to award money for most higher-education projects. Critics call the practice pork-barrel spending.
Representative Andrews, who serves on the House education committee, said the earmarks had helped to provide legal services to the poor and pointed out that his wife had no direct oversight of the program. The congressman had sought prior approval of the earmarks from the House ethics committee, which concluded that his wife had no “ownership interest” in the law school and that the earmarks did not “affect the spouse’s salary.”
In a statement provided to the Post, Senator Wicker said that he had supported “sensible studies” at each of Mississippi’s four research institutions—Ole Miss, Jackson State University, Mississippi State University, and the University of Southern Mississippi—and that “these projects have led to improvements in health care, education, and other critical areas.”
Aides to Representative Jackson Lee did not respond to the Post, but her husband, Elwyn C. Lee, said in a written statement that he had no role in requesting congressional earmarks, and stressed that none of the money had gone to projects he oversees.
While some of the earmarks to colleges span a decade, most occurred between 2008 and 2010, when Congress imposed a moratorium on the practice.
To conduct its investigation, the Post analyzed public records on all 535 members of Congress and then matched its findings to earmarks requested by the lawmakers. It found 33 examples of members who had sent money to public projects located near their own properties, and 16 examples of lawmakers who had directed dollars to companies, colleges, and community programs where their spouses, children, or parents work or serve on boards. Seven of those cases involve colleges.
Only one of the public projects involved a college located close to a lawmaker’s home: a road project and intersection near Hampshire College, in Massachusetts. From 2003 to 2008, Rep. John W. Olver, a Democrat of Massachusetts, secured $5.1-million for the project, which begins 209 feet from his home. The congressman told the Post that public officials had requested the project, adding that “I had no involvement whatsoever.”
The other examples identified by the Post are:
- $440,000 for the University of Montevallo, in Alabama, requested by Rep. Robert B. Aderholt, a Republican of Alabama, while his wife was on the university’s Board of Trustees.
- $1.5-million for Weber State University, in Utah, requested by Rep. Rob W. Bishop, a Republican of Utah, whose son works as a state-government lobbyist in Utah.
- $2.8-million for water and wind research at Bowling Green State University, in Ohio, requested by Rep. Robert E. Latta, a Republican of Ohio, while his wife was a university senior vice president.
- $4-million for a program for at-risk teenagers at Maricopa Community Colleges, in Arizona, requested by Rep. Edward L. Pastor, a Democrat of Arizona, whose daughter runs the program.