A Campaign Money Watch Report

October 4, 2010
(Download the full report)

Summary

Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif) calls himself a proponent of earmark reform, going so far as to pledge to place all of his own earmark requests on his website and insert statements into the Congressional Record explaining "why this is an appropriate use of federal funds." What Rep. Lungren doesn't disclose, however, is the full story.

A Campaign Money Watch investigation found that:

• Many of the companies for whom he has requested earmarks are led by major contributors to his campaigns;

• In 2010 he only requested earmarks for private companies whose executives had given him donations;

• He has received donations from lobbyists working for those companies;

• He relies on a technical definition of what an earmark is – not reporting specific requests worth tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money from federal agencies – in order to obfuscate his requests for federal funding on behalf of companies whose executives and lobbyists donate to his campaign; and

• He received more than $50,000 in campaign donations from executives, political action committees, and lobbyists representing companies for whom he had requested $85 million in earmarks.

Rep. Lungren knows exactly how the game is played. And that may explain why he has been an outspoken opponent of the bipartisan Fair Elections Now Act.

Factual Record

Since 2009, when Congress began requiring Members to disclose earmark requests on their official websites, Rep. Lungren has requested at least $85 million in earmarks or other special requests for funding for private companies.

Rep. Lungren has received $51,950 in campaign contributions from these same companies and their lobbyists. He did not make any earmark requests for 2010 for any private companies that did not give him campaign contributions.vi

• In at least one case, Clean Energy Systems, which gave Rep. Lungren $9,200 and for which Rep. Lungren made a $70 million funding request, later held fundraisers for Rep. Lungren to show their appreciation.
  

  "That support, Pronske said, prompted a group of mostly Republican board members and employees from the company to host fundraisers for both Lungren and Costa. The events, connected to contributions in December 2009 and February 2010, netted $7,500 for the campaign accounts of both Costa and Lungren, according to campaign finance reports." vii

  "'Certainly they had put in a lot of work and it's fairly typical to be asked to help out in the elections, so we did a small fundraiser,' Pronske said. 'It was really an ongoing process that we had to get that support.'" viii

Rep. Lungren failed to meet self-imposed standards on earmark disclosure.

• Rep. Lungren has set a high bar for earmark disclosure since his return to Congress in 2005, promising to explain all requests in the Congressional Record.
  

  In a March 2010 press release, Lungren said: "Since returning to Congress in 2005, I have been calling for 'earmark reform.' To lead the way, I have set high standards for vetting projects submitted to my office by enforcing a 'federal nexus' test - those projects that the federal government has a clear responsibility in assisting with funding. In addition, I have made all of my requests transparent to my constituents by placing them on my website and in the Congressional Record with an explanation answering 'why this is an appropriate use of federal funds.' Despite my best efforts to lead by example and encourage others to participate in these reforms, the process is still broken."ix

• However, the Congressional Record contains no mention of "Oxy Fuel Systems Turbine Development" or of Clean Energy Systems, even though his request far exceeded that of all his traditional earmarks. x
  

  In March 2009, Rep. Lungren wrote to Energy Secretary Steven Chu and requested $70 million in funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for a turbine development project managed by Clean Energy Systems and Siemens. This request far exceeded the $15,000,000 he would request in 2010 for other private companies, but he did not insert any remarks about it into the Congressional Record.

Rep. Lungren opposes the Fair Elections Now Act, a bi-partisan bill that would reduce the influence of lobbyists and campaign contributions and place elections back in the hands of voters.

Rep. Lungren opposed the legislation in the House Administration Committee markup on September 23, 2010.