Projects such as the big Mni Wiconi and Lewis and Clark water systems could have been affected if Congress had passed a one-year moratorium on so-called earmarks, according to all three members of South Dakota's congressional delegation.

A moratorium on earmarks was defeated on vote in the Senate late Thursday. It was backed by a couple of ardent foes of pork-barrel projects in the Senate as well as by the three remaining presidential candidates, Sens. John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Sen. Tim Johnson and Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, both South Dakota Democrats, said they were adamantly opposed to the earmarks moratorium.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said Wednesday that he was still examining the earmarks issue but that he believed the Senate proposal's definition of earmarks would include projects such as Mni Wiconi and Lewis and Clark.

Thune also said Congress has already passed reforms for the earmarks process. "We don't allow earmarks to be air dropped into conference committees without being passed by the House or Senate," he said.

Johnson said the term "earmark" has become a symbol for government waste but that in reality, congressionally directed funding is a vital way to provide needed money to local communities.

In a written statement, Johnson said an earmark moratorium also could affect other projects important to South Dakota such as those for roads, schools, universities, economic development and the underground lab at the Homestake mine.

He also said earmarks made up only 1 percent of the federal budget.

Johnson and Herseth Sandlin both said a one-year moratorium on earmarks would turn decisions for funding programs over to bureaucrats in the administration.

They noted that President Bush has already proposed dropping all funding next year for the Lewis and Clark project.

Herseth Sandlin said she has supported reform that has made the earmarks process more transparent.

But she said a moratorium on earmarks would be irresponsible. "If there's a one-year moratorium, all that means is the agencies allocate the dollars rather than members of Congress having some say in how those dollars are directed to make sure those resources are allocated equitably across the country," Herseth Sandlin said Thursday in a conference call with reporters.

"I think it has been a high point of hypocrisy for some of my Republican colleagues to suggest a one-year moratorium in an election year, when for six years, they did nothing to reform the process and provide accountability and transparency," Herseth Sandlin said. "They increased the number dramatically of these earmarks."

Herseth Sandlin, Johnson and Thune all have said the constitution gives Congress, not the executive branch, the power of the purse.

Thune said if a moratorium were approved, it is uncertain whether Congress would pass a continuing resolution that would freeze funding at 2007 spending levels.

Thune said his vote would depend on how earmarks were defined in a moratorium resolution.

"We're going to keep our powder dry," he said Wednesday.

Contact Steve Miller at 394-8417 or steve.miller@rapidcityjournal.com