News
For nine years, Texans in Congress have been steering federal money to a Fort Worth airport with no passenger flights.
The funds — $26 million since 2001 — are going to lengthen two runways at Fort Worth Alliance Airport to 11,000 feet from their current spans of 9,600 feet and 8,220 feet. The improvements will enable fully loaded cargo planes to take off during the hottest days, when more runway length is needed, airport spokesman David Pelletier said. That will be a big help to the airport's principal cargo carrier, FedEx, which has a major hub at Alliance.
"FedEx is the only carrier that uses the runways on a regular basis," Pelletier said.
FedEx and competitor United Parcel Service (UPS) have benefited on numerous occasions from "earmarks," which are specific projects that lawmakers add to spending bills, a USA TODAY review shows of the annual transportation spending bills for the past nine years.
Since 2001, $100 million in earmarked money has gone to 11 small airports where one of the two major cargo carriers has a large operation with daily flights. The funds have paid to expand or upgrade runways and taxiways to handle the large jets flown by FedEx and UPS.
Critics of earmarks, such as Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, call the spending "corporate welfare" because the money for airport projects mostly comes from the millions of people a year who buy airline tickets with federal taxes and mostly helps large companies.
"This isn't really benefiting the traveling public that much, and yet we're using earmarks to improve the business cost for FedEx or other businesses," Ellis said.
Airport officials say the upgrades boost a local economy. "To tie it to FedEx is a little misleading," Pelletier said of Alliance's runway project. "It benefits the whole area." Longer runways should increase activity at the airport, draw new cargo airlines and add jobs, he said.
Upgrades, broad benefits
Runway extensions also can improve safety by giving jets more room to land, said Ed Bolen, CEO of the National Business Aviation Association. "Most communities have a whole lot of reasons why they want to invest in their runways," he said.
FedEx spokesman Maury Lane said the company and the airports where it operates "have invested billions of dollars and created tens of thousands of jobs that generate many millions in tax revenue."
Although airport projects can have broad benefits, FedEx and UPS are vocal about wanting upgrades. For example:
• UPS told Capital Regional International Airport in Lansing, Mich., that it wanted the main runway lengthened from 8,000 feet to 8,500 feet so the company's DC-8 jets could take off with full loads of fuel and cargo, airport Executive Director Robert Selig said. "Their preference was the longer runway," he said.
• At Montana's Great Falls International Airport, FedEx "indicated the need for" a system that lets planes take off and land in low visibility, airport Director Cynthia Schultz said. FedEx has a regional hub at Great Falls.
Airport officials, feeling federal bureaucrats had overlooked them for years, lobbied Montana lawmakers, who delivered $7.5 million in earmarked funds from 2001 to 2005 to install the system and to improve a runway, Schultz said.
• Louisville International Airport has received $11.2 million in earmarks since 2002, much of it going to expand a runway and build a taxiway. The airport wants to be able to handle wide-body jets that UPS was planning to fly to Europe and Asia, airport Executive Director Skip Miller said. He said UPS has its largest shipping facility at the airport and is the largest employer in the Louisville area.
UPS canceled its plan in 2007 to buy wide-body jets, but the airport is finishing the work to handle them.
Lobbying and donations
The companies exert influence in Washington, too. Since 1999, Memphis-based FedEx has spent $50 million lobbying in Washington on numerous issues, including airport funding, federal records show. FedEx's political action committee (PAC) has given federal candidates $10.5 million in campaign donations in those years, according to records compiled by the non-partisan CQ MoneyLine.
Atlanta-based UPS has spent nearly $34 million on Washington lobbying, federal records show. Its PAC gave $14.7 million in the same period, according to CQ MoneyLine.
Among recipients from the UPS PAC was Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. He received $4,800 in contributions on March 19, 2007, CQ MoneyLine records show. Three days earlier, Rogers wrote a letter to House leaders seeking an earmark for Capital Regional International Airport, his local airfield.
Capital Regional got $3.5 million that fiscal year for the runway extension. In 2006, Rogers got $3 million for the same project, his spokesman Sylvia Warner said.
UPS spokesman Michael Mangeot said there is no connection between Rogers' earmarks and the $45,000 in campaign contributions UPS' PAC has given Rogers since 2005 — the maximum donation allowed by law. He called the timing of the contributions in March 2007 "coincidence."
The funds — $26 million since 2001 — are going to lengthen two runways at Fort Worth Alliance Airport to 11,000 feet from their current spans of 9,600 feet and 8,220 feet. The improvements will enable fully loaded cargo planes to take off during the hottest days, when more runway length is needed, airport spokesman David Pelletier said. That will be a big help to the airport's principal cargo carrier, FedEx, which has a major hub at Alliance.
"FedEx is the only carrier that uses the runways on a regular basis," Pelletier said.
FedEx and competitor United Parcel Service (UPS) have benefited on numerous occasions from "earmarks," which are specific projects that lawmakers add to spending bills, a USA TODAY review shows of the annual transportation spending bills for the past nine years.
Since 2001, $100 million in earmarked money has gone to 11 small airports where one of the two major cargo carriers has a large operation with daily flights. The funds have paid to expand or upgrade runways and taxiways to handle the large jets flown by FedEx and UPS.
Critics of earmarks, such as Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, call the spending "corporate welfare" because the money for airport projects mostly comes from the millions of people a year who buy airline tickets with federal taxes and mostly helps large companies.
"This isn't really benefiting the traveling public that much, and yet we're using earmarks to improve the business cost for FedEx or other businesses," Ellis said.
Airport officials say the upgrades boost a local economy. "To tie it to FedEx is a little misleading," Pelletier said of Alliance's runway project. "It benefits the whole area." Longer runways should increase activity at the airport, draw new cargo airlines and add jobs, he said.
Upgrades, broad benefits
Runway extensions also can improve safety by giving jets more room to land, said Ed Bolen, CEO of the National Business Aviation Association. "Most communities have a whole lot of reasons why they want to invest in their runways," he said.
FedEx spokesman Maury Lane said the company and the airports where it operates "have invested billions of dollars and created tens of thousands of jobs that generate many millions in tax revenue."
Although airport projects can have broad benefits, FedEx and UPS are vocal about wanting upgrades. For example:
• UPS told Capital Regional International Airport in Lansing, Mich., that it wanted the main runway lengthened from 8,000 feet to 8,500 feet so the company's DC-8 jets could take off with full loads of fuel and cargo, airport Executive Director Robert Selig said. "Their preference was the longer runway," he said.
• At Montana's Great Falls International Airport, FedEx "indicated the need for" a system that lets planes take off and land in low visibility, airport Director Cynthia Schultz said. FedEx has a regional hub at Great Falls.
Airport officials, feeling federal bureaucrats had overlooked them for years, lobbied Montana lawmakers, who delivered $7.5 million in earmarked funds from 2001 to 2005 to install the system and to improve a runway, Schultz said.
• Louisville International Airport has received $11.2 million in earmarks since 2002, much of it going to expand a runway and build a taxiway. The airport wants to be able to handle wide-body jets that UPS was planning to fly to Europe and Asia, airport Executive Director Skip Miller said. He said UPS has its largest shipping facility at the airport and is the largest employer in the Louisville area.
UPS canceled its plan in 2007 to buy wide-body jets, but the airport is finishing the work to handle them.
Lobbying and donations
The companies exert influence in Washington, too. Since 1999, Memphis-based FedEx has spent $50 million lobbying in Washington on numerous issues, including airport funding, federal records show. FedEx's political action committee (PAC) has given federal candidates $10.5 million in campaign donations in those years, according to records compiled by the non-partisan CQ MoneyLine.
Atlanta-based UPS has spent nearly $34 million on Washington lobbying, federal records show. Its PAC gave $14.7 million in the same period, according to CQ MoneyLine.
Among recipients from the UPS PAC was Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. He received $4,800 in contributions on March 19, 2007, CQ MoneyLine records show. Three days earlier, Rogers wrote a letter to House leaders seeking an earmark for Capital Regional International Airport, his local airfield.
Capital Regional got $3.5 million that fiscal year for the runway extension. In 2006, Rogers got $3 million for the same project, his spokesman Sylvia Warner said.
UPS spokesman Michael Mangeot said there is no connection between Rogers' earmarks and the $45,000 in campaign contributions UPS' PAC has given Rogers since 2005 — the maximum donation allowed by law. He called the timing of the contributions in March 2007 "coincidence."
