Earmarks work their way into the stimulus package budget

money to their home states. Yet Obama said the stimulus would be different. He banned “earmarks,” which lawmakers routinely slip into bills to pay for pet projects, and he told agencies to “develop transparent, merit-based selection criteria” for spending.

Customs and Border Protection, the DHS agency overseeing border projects, allowed the AP to review the list but will not make it public or explain its justifications for deviating from it.

Releasing that information would allow the public to see whether less important projects are getting money. The Transportation Department, for instance, recently was criticized by its internal watchdog for not following its standards when handing out money for 50 airport construction projects. Now the full $1.1 billion airport construction program is under scrutiny.

Without the lists, the public and members of Congress do not know when the administration bumps a project ahead of others ranked more important.

Customs officials said they wouldn’t release the master list because it was just a starting point and subject to misunderstanding. They acknowledged there’s no way for the public to know whether they are cherry-picking projects.

“There’s a certain level of trust here,” said Robert Jacksta, a deputy customs commissioner.

Some discrepancies between the stimulus plan and the priority list can be attributed to Congress, which set aside separate pools of money for large and small border stations. That guaranteed that a few small, probably lower-rated projects would be chosen ahead of bigger, higher-priority projects. It does not explain, however, all the discrepancies, because even within the two pools, Homeland Security sometimes reached way down on the list when selecting projects.

Many of the U.S. 163 border checkpoints, known as land ports, are more than 40 years old and in need of upgrade and repairs. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, those needs became more pressing and complex as officials beefed up border security. There is far more work to be done than money to complete it.

To prioritize, officials score each project on traffic volume, security vulnerability, construction needs and other factors. The resulting list represents “an objective and fair method for prioritizing projects,” officials wrote in a 2005 summary.

This is the process the Obama administration described in a news release announcing $720 million in stimulus money for borders. It did not say, however, that officials can choose projects out of order for many reasons.

Trent Frazier, who oversees the border projects, said the list Congress required is more like a meal plan. The administration can decide when to eat each dish, as long as everything eventually gets eaten. Explaining why one project might get pushed ahead, Frazier said, “You just really liked pizza and you wanted to accelerate it.”

In the case of the stimulus, officials said the Nogales, Arizona, project was construction-ready, a requirement of the recovery law. Officials also consider the economy, which means if the government expects local businesses to close and border traffic to decrease, it can delay paying for that project.

In one instance, officials said they reached deep into the list to provide $39 million for repairs in Van Buren, Maine, because flooding made the facility a safety hazard. In another, they are spending $30 million in Blaine, Washington, a lower-rated project that is unusual because it includes covering the costs of a state road project. With the 2010 Olympics coming to nearby Vancouver, Canada, officials worried the border would be strained without the project.

Officials said they could similarly justify every decision they have made. They would not provide those justifications to the AP. Frazier said the department would answer questions on a case-by-case basis, working through Congress to explain decisions to the public.

Even some in Congress say they are not getting answers. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) said he has yet to hear a good explanation about why highly ranked projects such as Laredo were snubbed.

More than $116 billion in freight passed through Laredo last year, according to the Transportation Department. It is one of the busiest border stations in the country. Unemployment in the metropolitan area is 9.4 percent.

“For the sake of fairness, if you have a list, there’s some sort of expectation that you’re going to follow that list,” Cuellar said.

Tester, who said he pressed the Obama administration to get money for Montana projects, said border crossings in his state had been unfairly ignored.

“The northern border tends to be forgotten, and it shouldn’t be,” Tester told the Great Falls Tribune after announcing $77 million for Montana posts in the stimulus.

Whitetail, Montana, an unincorporated town with a population of 71, saw only about $63,000 in freight cross its border last year. County unemployment is an enviable 4 percent. “I think, absolutely, it’s going to create jobs and build the infrastructure,” Tester said.