By Wendy Gragg

Tribune-Herald staff writer

The Waco Mammoth Site could be one earmark item that makes the grade, a White House official said Tuesday.

Despite continuing rhetoric by some critics regarding earmarks, Rob Nabors, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said an earmark appropriating money to develop the Waco Mammoth Site likely has enough merit to sustain scrutiny.

“The budget structure we are coming up with is a structure where worthy projects are going to be funded. We want to sit down with Congress and make sure projects are both transparent and chosen on their merits as much as possible,” Nabors told the Tribune-Herald editorial board.

Multimedia

• Video: Mammoth construction site footage

Work goes on at the Waco Mammoth Site. The site could get an extra boost in development if approved as a national monument. (Duane A. Laverty photo)

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A welder works at the Waco Mammoth Site. Legislation has been filed in the U.S. Senate to bring the site into the national park system. (Duane A. Laverty photo)

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The mammoth site received another vote of support Tuesday in a bill filed by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, establishing it as a new unit of the national park system. U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, was a co-sponsor of the legislation.

“Hopefully, with bipartisan support in Congress, the legislation I have introduced will make the site’s status as National Parklands a reality. This site is a source of pride for Waco, Baylor and the state of Texas,” Cornyn said in a statement.

Make it a monument

U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, has led the surge of support for the site, filing a bill Friday to authorize the designation of the mammoth site as a national monument. If the bill is approved by Congress and signed into law, Edwards will then seek money to develop the site, which lies along the Bosque River.

At this point, the appropriation request would likely become one of the often-maligned budget earmarks. The appropriation would probably be attached to the fiscal year 2011 budget, said Chris Chwastyk, Edwards’ chief of staff.

“From what Chet Edwards has told me — and we have talked about this a number of times, he’s been a champion of this for a number of years — this is a very worthwhile project, and we’re going to spend some time taking a look at it,” Nabors said.

The congressman confirmed he has kept White House officials in the loop about the Waco Mammoth Site’s potential as an economic and educational tool.

“I know and respect Rob Nabors, who was the longtime chief clerk of the House Appropriations Committee,” Edwards told the Tribune-Herald. “I appreciate his comments regarding the Waco Mammoth Site and look forward to working with him to fund the development of the site.”

The site, discovered in 1978, contained at least two dozen Columbian mammoths that died in a massive mudslide about 68,000 years ago. Baylor scientists have excavated some of the skeletons, though some remain buried and some are exposed to view.

Edwards has been a champion of the project for nearly a decade.

Earmarks help site

Federal earmarks have served the mammoth site well so far. In 2005, an earmark secured $200,000 for preservation efforts at the site and another $200,000 for proper exhibition of mammoth remains at Baylor University’s Mayborn Museum.

Funds could be appropriated through the National Parks Service budget, but there’s no guarantee that money would be set aside for the mammoth site. But a congressman can champion a project and ask for money specifically for that project.

Government officials sometimes call it a home-state project. Critics call it an earmark.

It’s not yet known when the Waco Mammoth Site could get its national monument designation or how much federal money would be attached, but a National Park Service study estimates the national monument option could be funded by $300,000 a year from local sources and $340,000 a year from the federal government.

wgragg@wacotrib.com

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