WaPo takes on Murtha once again

By Daniel Malloy September 21, 2009

The latest today from the Washington Post's John Murtha watchdog Carol D. Leonnig is an investigation of the John Murtha Institute at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The Post finds that the Institute has received a lot of money without a lot of results:

Named for the chairman of the powerful Appropriations subcommittee on defense, who has shepherded most of its funding, the Murtha Institute was supposed to embark on projects to protect America from terrorists and clean up environmental dangers. Much of the work went to companies and friends close to the congressman, and few of the projects met their goals, a Washington Post investigation shows.

But its spotty performance and internal turmoil have not deterred the congressman or his alma mater, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, which houses the center, from seeking more funds or dreaming big about the future.

Plans are underway to move the Murtha Institute from its current dormitory basement suite to a $53 million IUP athletic arena and conference center now under construction. Murtha (D-Pa.) secured a $3 million federal earmark for the building two years ago, and he sought another earmark this year before abruptly changing course as investigations of his defense appropriations and lobbying ties heated up. Murtha redirected some of that request to IUP research.

In a district that also boasts a regional airport named for Murtha and nearly a dozen other facilities bearing his name, the institute is another example of how the congressman has used federal funds to revitalize this economically depressed former coal-mining region. In doing so, he has raised questions among watchdog groups and outside critics about the use of taxpayer money for projects that appear to mostly benefit Murtha loyalists.

The story cites as evidence a program called the National Emergency Disaster Information System, which the Institute developed with $6 million in federal funds, mostly steered to companies with close Murtha ties, but was never deployed in the field by the National Guard. The full story has some good detail.

The Post has repeatedly looked into the Johnstown Democrat in recent months, from his ties to Bill Kuchera's companies to the little-used airport that bears the congressman's name and survived a challenge to strip its funding last week.