http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/08/washington/08earmarks.html?hp&ex=1144555200&en=9621820f567c2ea6&ei=5094&partner=homepageAs lawmakers have increasingly slipped pet projects into federal spending bills over the past decade, one lawmaker has used his powerful perch on the House Appropriations Committee to funnel $250 million into five nonprofit organizations that he set up.
Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
Alan B. Mollohan, left, senior Democrat on the House ethics committee, with Commerce Secretary Carlos Guitierrez at an appropriation hearing Friday.
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Local Projects, Federal Funds
By The New York Times
Fairmont, W.Va., is the hometown of Representative Alan B. Mollohan.
Those actions have prompted a complaint to federal prosecutors that questions whether any of that taxpayer money helped fuel a parallel growth in his personal fortune.
The most ambitious effort by the congressman, Alan B. Mollohan, is a glistening glass-and-steel structure with a swimming pool, sauna and spa rising in a former cow pasture in Fairmont, W.Va., thanks to $103 million of taxpayer money he garnered through special spending allocations known as earmarks.
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Mr. Mollohan noted that the National Legal and Policy Center had attacked other Democrats and their union supporters and that it began its inquiry last May after he had voted against Republican efforts to water down House ethics rules.
"Obviously, I am in the crosshairs of the National Republican Party and like-minded entities," said Mr. Mollohan, who faces a serious electoral challenge in November. Vice President Dick Cheney is scheduled to headline a fund-raiser on April 21 for the Republican whom the White House recruited to run against Mr. Mollohan.
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