Loss of federal money keeps American Indian court and cultural facility unfinished

After grand plans and a promising start, a South Dakota building designed to be an American Indian cultural facility and judicial center remains incomplete as its federal funding has been cut off, reports The New York Times.

Monica Davey writes that the Wakpa Sica Reconciliation Place (pictured in a Times photo by Keith Bedford) was meant to help lure outside investment to the reservation "by creating a court system where outsiders could recoup losses if a business deal went bad." Former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., had led the push for a federal earmark for the $18 million project, but with the loss of his re-election bid in 2004 and the anti-earmark tide sparked by the Jack Abramoff scandal, the project lies half-finished, Davey writes. The project's budget also has ballooned to $25 million, and so the building's eagle-inspired design has just one wing.

“The thing is, this is anything but a bridge to nowhere,” said Marshall Matz, a lawyer in Washington who is representing the center, told Davey. “But no one wants to hear that. The Congress seems to feel we are an earmark, and earmarks are very difficult now to get money for.” But this is the story of earmarks, Davey explains, that when a project is tied to one lawmaker, its risks are greater than those connected to large companies and multiple lawmakers. Even with new rules requiring lawmakers to put their names on their earmarks, "House lawmakers have put together spending bills with nearly 6,500 earmarks worth almost $11 billion," Davey writes. (Read more)