Freshman Republicans Lobby Federal Agencies For Millions Amid Spending Critiques

WASHINGTON -- For years, Tennessee lawmakers have advocated for the construction of a major port on the northwest corner of the state on the Mississippi River. Known as the Port of Cates Landing, the project would include a 9,000-foot slack-water harbor, an adjacent 350-acre industrial park, improvements to local roads to connect it to U.S. Highway 78, and a short-line railroad to a larger rail line 28 miles away. It would, by some estimates, create thousands of jobs -- a much-needed boon for the Lake County region, 37.8 percent of whose residents live below the poverty line.

It also would cost a fair amount of cash. By the spring of 2011, more than $33 million had been invested in the project; an additional $20 million -- $13 million from the federal government, $7 million from the state of Tennessee -- was on its way. But as Congress, in an effort to avert a shutdown, began looking for federal expenditures to shave off the budget, Cates Landing's future suddenly became unclear. It was, among other transportation projects, on the chopping block.

Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.), a member of the freshmen Republican class of the House of Representatives whose district includes the port project, faced a predicament. Elected as a fiscal hawk, with pledges to get spending under control, he could either go to the mat for Cates Landing or make a philosophical, self-sacrificial statement.

He chose the former. On March 8, 2011, Gannett news service reported that the funding for Cates Landing was being targeted by lawmakers looking to slash the federal budget. The same day that report came out, Fincher spoke directly with Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood about the funds. The next day, he wrote a follow-up letter seeking assistance in "obligating" the $13 million grant for the port.

"The contract is currently before your Department and ready to be signed," the letter read. "I am respectively requesting you to help push this project over the final hurdle. There is no law, regulation, or other legal obligation to prevent you from signing this contract and I urge you to do so without further delay."

The lobbying had its intended results. The grant was signed on March 18, according to a Department of Transportation spokesperson, with the goal of finishing construction by the fall.

"We just wanted to make sure that we could do everything possible to create jobs, and this was a part we could play and I did everything I could and we were successful," the congressman declared a few days later to reporters, onlookers and fellow lawmakers, at an event praising the incoming funds.

Two days after writing LaHood, Fincher voted for the a Republican House budget that cut billions of dollars, including from many other transportation priorities. His office put out a press release scolding "out of control" and "reckless" federal spending.

As lawmakers prepare to cut trillions of dollars from the budget as a condition to raising the nation's debt ceiling, the story of the Cates Landing project underscores the dilemma that faces many members of the Republican-run House and the freshmen class in particular. Federal spending is derided as nothing short of a threat to the country's future -- unless, of course, it happens to be directed at that congressman's home district.

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Source: Huffington