Democrat Ethics: Rep. Lynch Got Federal Grants for Agencies Linked To His Wife

Not that anyone ever truly believed that the Democratic Party was ever capable or willing to lead the most open, honest, and ethical Congress in history, but come on…

US Representative Stephen F. Lynch has engineered four federal grants for a community health center and another three grants for a nearby substance abuse program, organizations for which his wife, Margaret, is an employee or board member.

Lynch arranged the passage of $760,430 in federal earmarks for the South Boston Community Health Center. Margaret Lynch is the center’s director of marketing and development. Earmarks totaling $881,018 were appropriated for the Gavin Foundation, a residential substance abuse program. Lynch’s wife was named to the foundation’s unpaid board just after it received its first earmark in 2003.

The earmarks for the two organizations totaled $1.64 million. For both organizations, the funding was for substance abuse services. Lynch could cite no instance in which he has obtained earmarked funds for any other substance abuse treatment facility in his district, which includes much of the southern part of Boston and 19 other cities and towns.

For the coming fiscal year, Lynch is seeking $190,000 more for the health center and an additional $350,000 for the Gavin Foundation, according to Lynch’s official US House website. This year, for the first time, members of Congress are required to disclose requests for earmarks, which are congressionally mandated expenditures that House and Senate members have long used to fund favored projects in their districts.

Some might argue that the missions of these organizations blurs that ethical line, but that does little to change the apparent inappropriateness.

Steve Ellis, vice president of programs at Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan budget watchdog group in Washington, said any earmark directed to an organization with personal ties to a congressman can be troubling, even if fully disclosed.

“While both of these may be laudable organizations achieving important goals, it always concerns us when lawmakers are directing federal funding towards entities that their family is involved in,’’ Ellis said.

In recent years, we’ve seen members of Congress attacked for their support of projects that indirectly affect them. Lynch’s efforts are much more directly tied to his wife, and that certainly raises a lot of questions… not just about this, but of other organizations or agencies he has sought federal funds for. Has he or his wife ever profitted from a project that he got federal funding for? If the media does its job, we ought to find out the answer to this question soon.

Matt Margolis is co-author (with Mark Noonan) of Caucus of Corruption: The Truth About The New Democratic Majority. He also blogs at The Buffalo Bean. Follow Matt on Twitter.

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