Flying on the Federal Dollar
Charleston, S.C., Post and Courier
The aptly named John P. Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa., has received $200 million in federal funding, largely due to the longtime Democratic congressman’s muscle on Capitol Hill. Sen. Jim DeMint’s recent effort to halt the annual earmark to the airport might have been quixotic, but he deserves credit for trying.
Why would the South Carolina Republican single out this particular recipient of federal pork?
Read what The Washington Post wrote about Rep. Murtha’s hometown airport:
“The airport has received $200 million in federal funds in the last 15 years. Most of those funds were steered there by Murtha, including more than $25 million for stronger runways to handle heavy military planes, which don’t fly there; $8 million for a radar system, which isn’t used; and $800,000 in new stimulus funds to repave an alternate runway.”
Rep. Murtha, who is in his 19th term, steers more pork to his district than any other congressman. Earmarks to some defense contractors who have contributed to Rep. Murtha’s campaigns have drawn FBI scrutiny.
Use of the Murtha airport is sparse. It serves an average of only 30 passengers on three flights a day, all to Washington, D.C. The federal subsidy is estimated at $100 per passenger.
“If we cannot look at the facts in this particular case, and decide as a Congress to stop this, then there is nothing we can cut here, then there is no such thing as waste,” Sen. DeMint said.
The Johnstown airport has been compared to the Alaskan “Bridge to Nowhere,” that was the pet project of Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska.
Rep. Young used his senior position on an appropriations panel to obtain more than $200 million for a bridge linking a town to its airport on a nearby island. At least that funding was eventually yanked by Congress after it became widely publicized.
Similar arguments have yet to prevail on the Murtha airport’s funding.
The Senate rejected Sen. DeMint’s motion by a 53-43 margin last week. A similar effort previously failed in the House by 263-154.
Maybe we should assume from those votes that the Democratic majority in Congress believes “there is no such thing as waste.”
Maybe they’ve never seen the John P. Murtha Airport.
