By Matt Laslo
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-907456.mp3
Washington, DC – The man known as the dean of the Kentucky Congressional delegation has been serving the fifth district since the eighties. Republican Hal Rogers has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to one of the poorest areas of the nation.
If you've ever driven in southeastern Kentucky, chances are you were on the Hal Rogers Parkway. Do you know whose name was on there first? Pioneer Daniel Boone.
So if Boone was as tough as an oak tree and his name got bumped, then who is Hal Rogers? For one, he's quiet and unassuming. If you passed by him on the street you'd see an ordinary short, stocky Kentucky grandfather. But when it comes to power, Boone has nothing on the fifteen term Congressman.
"I've voted around 16,000 votes. I checked it just the other day. You know thirty years of voting," said Rogers.
Walking alongside the Capitol's subway on the way to one of those votes, Rogers recalls some of them with mixed feelings. The former National Guardsman voted to authorize wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Those are the tough votes," said Rogers.
But Rogers didn't get reelected by eighty four percent purely because of how he votes. He's helped bolster the economy of southeastern Kentucky from his seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee. That's Congress-speak for the committee that controls federal spending. Rogers is anything but ashamed of all the "pork" or earmarks he's brought home from that perch.
"They've gotten a bad name in late years because of abuse, but I'm telling you, I'm so proud of the earmarks that I made back yonder in funding the flood wall in Pineville and the tunnels for flood waters in Harlan, and a dozen other places," said Rogers.
Those towns were battered before the walls went up. Pineville Mayor Sherwin Rader remembers when the Cumberland River flooded in 1977.
"We sort of were like in a fishbowl for several days," said Rader.
20 feet of water swallowed houses and buildings. After the flood walls went up, Rader says her small town sleeps easier.
"We have not had a major flood since then and of course the waters never came over it," said Rader.
Rogers also helped found the Southern Kentucky Economic Development Corporation, which he claims has brought over ten thousand jobs to the region.
And Rogers secured money for "Operation UNITE" to combat drug use in his rural district. He estimates it has put over three thousand drug dealers in prison. Rogers is happy to steer federal money back home, because he knows where it's going.
"The second poorest district in America. And a district that is terribly needy and has by and large, over the years, been neglected by the state government. So there's no place else for our people to turn," said Rogers.
Democrat Nick Rahall represents the district just over the border in West Virginia. The two have teamed up on issues of mutual concern, especially coal. Rahall says his colleague is effective because he knows how to work across the aisle.
"Hal Rogers is - I don't want to say from the old school - but from the knowledgeable school that knows how to get things done around the Congress," said Rahall.
He has the knowledge to get things done and reasons that go beyond the Blue Grass State.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Rogers and his wife were watching the burning towers on T-V, when his condo in Northern Virginia started shaking. Rogers ran to the window.
"And saw that ugly black mushroom cloud rising above the Pentagon right there in my face. And Cynthia screamed out, "Hal, what's going on?" and I said, "We're at war,"" said Rogers.
After that the Capitol got a make over . . . new security barriers to stop car bombs went up everywhere.
Roger's resume also got a makeover. He was the first person to chair the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee. All spending on homeland security passed through him. Rogers says he helped combine twenty two government agencies and fund new security initiatives.
"We had to a feel our way along, and try things and try another thing. To try to build a defense for the country and that's consumed me since," said Rogers.
Tom Schatz is the President of Citizens Against Government Waste. He says Roger's security related earmarks raise red flags. Among others Schatz points to the Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium of Eastern Kentucky University and the National Institute for Hometown Security.
"The latter two in particular could have been done anywhere in the country - if they were even necessary in the first place. And they were not competitive. They are not essentially being done on [sic] a way that are best for the country," said Schatz.
Some of those earmarks also went to people who contribute to Roger's campaign. Steering security contracts home led the conservative editorial board at National Review magazine to call Rogers a quote "Congressional disgrace." But Rogers sees it quite differently.
"If the government's gonna' [sic] do a job that some of my people can do, I would prefer them do it than somebody else," said Rogers.
At age 72, Rogers says he doesn't plan on giving up appropriating or his Congressional seat anytime soon.
"I don't have any plans to voluntarily retire. Voters have a chance to retire you every two years," said Rogers.
Over the past three decades Rogers has witnessed a lot changes in Washington. He says lawmaking isn't as fun as it once was because both parties are now more confrontational. But even when policy skirmishes pop up, Roger's colleagues say he's a good reminder that civility and politics can go hand in hand.