His star fallen, DeLay sees his pet project fade $500m oil-gas plan slashed

By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff February 17, 2006
WASHINGTON -- When Tom DeLay was the most powerful man in the House of Representatives, Congress and the president devoted $500 million over 10 years for an oil and gas project lawmakers expected to go to a firm in DeLay's hometown.

But just a month after the embattled former House majority leader announced he would not try to keep his leadership job, the Bush administration cut funding for the project from its 2007 budget, and announced in the fine print of its 1,220-page fiscal blueprint that it would seek legislation to kill the program outright.

A Department of Energy spokesman said the decision this month merely reflects President Bush's desire to weed out ineffective programs. But in political circles, lawmakers and analysts saw the cut as a slap against a man who no longer has the political muscle to hit back.

''No way" would the administration suggest eliminating the program if Delay, the Texas Republican, were still majority leader, said Tyson Slocum, an energy specialist at Public Citizen, a lobbying group that opposed the project. ''He carried way too much clout. This program clearly was identified with Tom DeLay."

Representative Ralph Hall, a fellow Texas Republican who fought for the energy project, said he would appeal the matter to Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman, but acknowledged that DeLay's troubles gave supporters less leverage.

DeLay is under indictment, accused of laundering campaign contributions to fund Texas legislative races. His ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who recently pleaded guilty to defrauding clients, have also drawn scrutiny.

Facing a difficult election year, many Republicans have distanced themselves from their former leader and from his intricate network of supporters who were often rewarded with federal funding for pet projects.

The energy project funds research and development into ''ultra deepwater" drilling for oil and gas. The project, included in the sweeping energy bill Bush signed into law last year, was heralded as a critical step in shaping a national energy policy and making the country less dependent on foreign oil.

While the legislation does not specify who would receive the program money, energy specialists and Democratic critics said the language of the bill virtually ensured it would go to the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America, a nonprofit consortium based in DeLay's Sugar Land, Texas, district. Hall was the sponsor of the proposal, but DeLay was an active and powerful promoter of it.

House Democrats were incensed last year when the research and development project, which was not included in the printed version of the energy bill, was inserted in the legislation overnight by four leading negotiators on the bill.

While two Democrats knew of the addition, other Democrats complained that they had no chance to debate the provision.

''It was snuck in at the last minute as a giveaway to the most profitable companies in the history of the world," said Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Malden, referring to the oil companies in the consortium.

Markey praised the Bush administration for proposing to kill the project, but said he didn't think the administration would have done so if DeLay were still majority leader.

Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan budget watchdog, considered the project ''the worst provision in the energy bill," said the group's vice president for policy, Keith Ashdown.

''Behind the scenes, the reason why it happened was because DeLay put his shoulder into it."

Sticking the provision into the bill at the last moment, in part to shield its powerful supporters from scrutiny, makes it ''the poster child for what's wrong with Congress," Ashdown said.

DeLay's office did not respond to requests for comment, but Brian Nick, a spokesman for the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, defended DeLay as a passionate advocate for his district.

''Clearly, someone with the experience of getting things done in Congress and who still serves on the very powerful Appropriations Committee is very beneficial to his constituents at home," Nick said.

John Grassner, a spokesman for the Department of Energy, said the effort to eradicate the proposal had nothing to do with DeLay, but with the program itself.

The research and development project was to be funded by an oil and gas leasing program the administration also wants eliminated, he said, so the money wouldn't be there to pay for it.

He said that the oil and gas programs were ''not demonstrating clear results," and that the administration was determined to eliminate ineffective programs to pare the budget.

Melanie Kenderdine, spokeswoman for the energy consortium that stood to benefit from the program, defended the funding.

''It's in the interest of consumers for there to be additional gas supplies, because that will lower prices," she said.

Hall, the initial House sponsor, said he was ready to fight for the project on its merits.
While DeLay has snagged a seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee, it is unclear whether he will be able to persuade fellow lawmakers to save the project.

The 11-term House veteran faces a Republican primary in a few weeks, and, if he wins, might also face a well-known Democratic challenger and a conservative-leaning Independent candidate in the general election.

Michael Franc, a congressional specialist with the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the new House leadership may try to salvage the program to help DeLay beat back his challengers, fearing that Republican control of the House could hinge on DeLay's race.

But most House members are not eager to be associated with their former boss.

''It's kind of the law of political gravity. The velocity of your fall increases with the recognition that your former power seems to be ebbing," said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University.

''Gratitude is the most perishable commodity in Congress. 'Save yourself first' has always been the operational code."

© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company