When pork puts our troops at risk

In the new asymmetrical wars we fight, the concern over chemical warfare has heightened, and the US military has tried to prepare for that danger.  They now issue a resin powder that absorbs deadly chemicals, but a much better product has been in use for years in Canada and has been approved for use in the US since 2003.  The Department of Defense would like to replace the resin with the new lotion, but Congress has forced the Pentagon to buy the old product — through earmarks:

Scientists have discovered a lotion that can save the lives of U.S. soldiers exposed to chemical weapons — a product vastly superior to the standard-issue decontamination powder.

Naturally, the Defense Department wants to scrap the powder and switch to the more-effective lotion.

But there’s a problem: After being lobbied by the companies making the powder, several members of Congress pushed through two earmarks worth $7.6 million that forced the military for the past two years to keep buying the inferior product.

The product, known as M291, is made from a resin sold exclusively by a Pennsylvania chemical company, which is then processed into powder by a New York company, then assembled into individual kits at a facility in Arkansas.

Among the lawmakers who championed the earmarks are Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.; Arlen Specter, R-Pa.; and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

In fact, Congress has allocated over $43 million in earmarks to the manufacturer of the resin, Rohm and Haas of Pennsylvania, since 2000.  Of the $43,013,800 Congress set aside in pork for R&H, only $16,000 had any competition at all.  The rest of it came through no-bid contracts built into earmarks.

And why?  Not because R&H had a superior product.  As the Seattle Times notes, R&H had an inferior product that the DoD wanted to replace because of the risk to our troops in the field.  Instead of allowing the Pentagon to make its own determination or at least to put the contracts up for a competitive bid process that would have allowed R&H to make the case for its product, Congress intervened to force the inferior product onto the troops.

No, as the Times makes clear, the issue here was parochialism about the source of production … and campaign contributions.  Arlen Specter got $47,000 over the last few cycles from R&H’s PAC, but he wasn’t the only one.  Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy, whose district has R&H’s facility, got $2,000 in this cycle and $1,000 in 2006, while Jack Murtha got a combined $2,000.  They gave $5,000 each to the DNC and the DSCC in 2008.

Rohm & Haas made a fortune off of a small investment in politicians.  That’s the power of pork.  It allows Congress to put our troops at risk for 30 pieces of silver.