House GOP Fails To Kill Murtha Pet Project

House Republicans early this morning invoked a parliamentary procedure in an unsuccessful attempt to kill the often-derided if little-known National Drug Intelligence Center, a small federal agency created to coordinate the drug war as well as a pet project of one of their chief nemeses, Democrat John Murtha of Pennsylvania. Murtha has led his party's efforts to impose troop withdrawal deadlines in Iraq.

The center, loathed by the Drug Enforcement Administration, nearly died on the drawing board--and by many accounts, it should have. But Murtha, chair of a powerful appropriations subcommittee, resuscitated the center and planted it in his own district, creating a host of logistical problems.

In 2005, U.S.News & World Report published an investigative report on the agency. (GOP leaders highlighted the story in making their case.)

The proposed Republican amendment would have forced a potentially embarrassing audit of the facility and cut its budget to levels just high enough to enable its closure. The remainder of its budget, the GOP argued, would be better spent supporting intelligence programs in the war on terrorism.

That may be true, but the chance to publicly excoriate the NDIC while calling for its closure also gave Republicans the chance to make Murtha sweat. Losing the NDIC would be a blow to his rural district, where jobs are scarce.

"It wasn't used as a vehicle to embarrass Murtha," Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for House Republican leader John Boehner, told U.S. News, "but as a vehicle to highlight the misguided policy positions in the Democratic Party. The underlying intelligence bill cut covert operations, and this motion to recommit would have restored some of that funding."

While motions to recommit have successfully split Democrats in the past to secure key Republican wins, the latest attempt failed, 241 to 181, largely along party lines.

Murtha's spokesman was out of the office today and did not respond to an E-mail.

Note: This item originally appeared on the News Desk blog at www.usnews.com/newsdesk

By Bret Schulte