Bellying Up to the Antiterror Bar

From oil wells to hospitals, lobbyists are dressing old requests in new clothes.

By: Christopher H. Schmitt and Julian E. Barnes

Last summer, Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski settled on California's power blackouts as the reason that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should be opened up to oil drilling. Since the terrorist attacks, California's electricity shortages have ebbed in the face of new supplies, recession, and conservation. But that hasn't changed Murkowski's mind - only the way he pitches the controversial project. He now says we must drill to lessen our dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

Since September 11, Congress has approved at least $59 billion in antiterrorism and disaster funds, for everything from military equipment and sky marshals to fighting bioterrorism and providing food for Afghan refugees. And the special interests are already angling for a piece of the action. While many may have legitimate claims, others can make only the remotest connection to the terror fight - and even more are dressing up old proposals in post-attack clothes. "The industries have clearly taken their old priority lists and put them on September 11 letterhead", says Steven Weiss of the Center for Responsive Politics.

It didn't take them long. Within days of the attacks, Capitol Hill staffers were hearing from lobbyists with freshly wrapped proposals on farm subsidies and foreign trade. Hospital lobbyists sought funds to renovate emergency rooms, and health insurance providers sought new limits on coverage. "They were feeling me out for what they could get", says one staffer on a healthcare committee, who asked not to be named.

The nation's restaurants were among the first to hit up Congress with a recycled pitch. Ever since lawmakers did away with the full tax deduction for business meals and entertainment in 1986, the industry has been trying to get it restored. After September 11, the restaurateurs declared eating out "the cornerstone of the economy", and their campaign for the full write-off began anew.

Well before the attacks, the agenda of the nation's investor-owned electric utilities included securing tax breaks, higher allowable rates of return, help with research and development costs, and eligibility for federal disaster assistance. Today, the industry has renewed its calls under the banner of protecting the power grid against terrorist attack. The American Shore and Beach Preservation Association stepped up its arguments for beach rebuilding, saying that better beaches are "vitally important" to ending the recession.

When travel sagged after the attacks, American tour bus operators joined a line of industries looking for help, and they made two perennial issues - an exemption from the federal tax on diesel fuel and protection from public-transit competition-part of their pitch. Vice President Michele Janis acknowledges the proposals have long been on the agenda but says, "It's very, very hard to build a firewall between all these issues, now that we are in a dire situation".

Public projects with only the thinnest connection to homeland defense have sprung up as well. In suburban Virginia, a proposal to widen Interstate 66 has long been controversial. After September 11, Gov. Jim Gilmore sought $130 million for the project, under the guise of speeding evacuation in some future disaster. In New York, Gov. George Pataki sought federal money for a high-speed rail project upstate, highway bridge construction, and replacement of transit system bus fleets.

The military will receive the bulk of antiterror funding - about $17 billion so far - and some Pentagon officials have moved quickly to piggyback on the attacks. The Marine Corps's troubled V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft has been grounded since December 2000, and Congress cut back funding last October. But the Marines and congressional supporters pushed through $1.5 billion in the 2002 defense spending bill to get the project restarted, saying the aircraft is ideal for getting into rugged areas like Afghanistan.

The most original effort to graft onto the antiterror effort may come from California date growers, with their post-attack call for "date diplomacy" - inclusion of their products in humanitarian aid packages for Afghanistan. Such a gesture, says the California Date Commission, "would demonstrate great respect for Muslim religion and culture-giving a huge boost to both regional and world support for our cause". The war against terrorism, that is. And, not coincidentally, growing dates.