KPLU Local News
(2009-09-10)
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OLYMPIA, WA
(N3) -
Long-time Washington Congressman Norm Dicks is named in a new report on defense-spending earmarks and campaign contributions. The Center for Public Integrity says Dicks, a Democrat, is among a dozen members of Congress engaged in questionable relationships with the defense industry and its lobbyists. KPLU's Austin Jenkins reports.
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Norm Dicks is the number two Democrat on the powerful House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. Washington, DC-based Public Integrity says last year Dicks earmarked 2 million dollars for SAIC, a Fortune 500 company, to do "underseas warfare" work in his district. In turn, Dicks received 30-thousand dollars in campaign contributions from the company's political action committee. Public Integrity's Bill Buzenberg says the circle of influence typically works like this.
Bill Buzenberg, Center for Public Integrity: "Where a former staff member becomes a lobbyist, has a contract with a corporation, the corporation gets an earmark, the corporation gives a contribution back to the lobbyist or back directly to the Congressman."
SAIC's lobbyist is a former Dicks's staffer. Dicks' chief of staff dismisses the report as sensational and notes that no one is accusing his boss of ethical lapses. I'm Austin Jenkins in Olympia. © Copyright 2012, N3
