New Hampshire's senators and representatives in Washington are far from leaders in congressional "earmark" spending, but they still returned about $185 million in taxpayer money to the Granite State, a review by the New Hampshire Union Leader shows.

And they see the practice as good for their constituents.

"I'm perfectly happy to defend any of the earmarks I've gotten over the years," said the state's senior U.S. senator, Republican Judd Gregg.

►Who in NH got federal earmarks? (5)

Earmarks are found both in legislation and committee reports and have the effect of law, targeting funds for specific projects.

"The people's trust in their government is undermined by congressional earmarks," President George W. Bush said this year, promising to veto "any appropriations bill which does not cut the number and costs of earmarks in half."

Bush later issued an executive order directing federal agencies to ignore earmarks not voted by Congress.

Gregg views earmarks differently than President Bush.

"Congress has every right to prioritize how money is spent as the executive branch does," Gregg said. "If not, then you turn over a huge authority to embedded bureaucrats in the executive branch."

In the context of a "disciplined budget," some earmarks are good, as long as they are transparent so it's clear how the money is spent, who asked for it and who the recipient is, Gregg said.

Taxpayers for Common Sense reports the federal budget for 2008 includes 11,331 Congressional earmarks worth $15.3 billion.

A recent article in "The Hill," the newspaper that covers Congress, notes freshmen Democratic members of the House were "showered with earmarks" as the House leadership bids to retain its majority status going into the 2008 general elections.

New Hampshire's Democratic freshmen U.S. Reps. Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter were not the top freshmen, according to The Hill, but they were in the top third of their class.

Bringing money home

In this fiscal year's budget, Gregg's signature is on earmarks totaling about $75 million.

Gregg is seldom the only senator earmarking a project; rather he and Sen. John E. Sununu together request projects and contracts or work with one or both of the state's U.S. representatives, Hodes and Shea-Porter.

For example, the I-293 interchange project in Manchester will receive $1.7 million in an earmark that Gregg and Shea-Porter requested.

Gregg's singular earmarks total about $6 million based on information on the U.S. Office of Management and Budget Web site.

Many of those earmarks are for the state's colleges and universities.

Often earmarks translate to jobs for the Granite State.

Gregg was one of the signers on defense department earmarks that included $12.1 million for Insight Technology Inc. of Londonderry and $14.5 million for BAE Systems in Nashua. Sununu also signed the earmarks.

Sununu's earmarks total about $60 million.

He was alone in reserving $339,000 for the University of New Hampshire to expand business and high technology programs. His defense department earmarks were almost identical to Gregg's, totalling $58 million.

According to a news release from the two senators, the defense department budget included $66 million for research, development and production programs by New Hampshire companies.

Hodes signed on to earmarks totaling about $25 million. A review by the New Hampshire Union Leader indicates he is the sole signer for about $4 million in projects and contracts.

Hodes, who represents the state's second district, earmarked $400,000 for rail safety projects throughout the North Country.

Shea-Porter's earmarks also total about $25 million, excluding earmarks for Pease and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which had multiple signers.

Among her earmarks are $400,000 for the Avis Goodwin Center to build a new facility and $370,000 for the Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, which also includes the signatures of Gregg and Sununu.

She included several earmarks for nursing programs at Franklin Pierce College, the state community college in Manchester and at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Services in Manchester.

How earmarks work

Gregg said earmarks have to be viewed in the context of the entire federal budget and entitlements such as Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, which represent the real money.

Because there have been abuses like the infamous Alaska "bridge-to-nowhere" project, Gregg said the focus is on earmarks, which represent less than 1 or 2 percent of the federal budget. Gregg likened the situation to a town meeting where people "argue over a new (police) cruiser for two hours and then approve the school budget in 10 minutes."

Sununu said increasing transparency is good.

Any funding earmark should be part of the legislation and not just written into the committee report, should not be put into the conference bill at the last minute and should go through the House or Senate so they are thoroughly vetted, he said.

Sununu and Gregg cited land conservation efforts in the Great Woods and Lake Umbagog as projects funded through earmarks.

"All of those requests were vetted through the process and had broad support across New Hampshire," Sununu said.

Hodes' $432,000 earmark for developing a virtual trip to the Mt. Washington Observatory drew a rebuke from the state Republican Party's chairman.

Hodes notes that Gregg also earmarked the project, which will allow students in New Hampshire and the rest of the country to access observatory resources via the Internet.

"I certainly have seen how broken the system has been and it needs to be cleaned up from the waste and corruption and the bridges-to-nowhere," Hodes said. While more accountability and more transparency have been added, additional changes are needed, Hodes said.

Hodes said the state only gets back 67 cents for every dollar sent to Washington in taxes, while New Hampshire has very pressing needs.

"In the past, representatives and senators were allowed to insert earmarks into appropriations bills without having to put their names on them," Shea-Porter said. "Spending ballooned out of control, and we ended up with outrageous and wasteful projects like the bridge to nowhere."

She said she would like to see much less reliance on earmarks, even though many of them are for good causes.

"I regret that some politicians attack earmarks in press releases and then brag about their own projects and never admit that their projects are earmarks also," Shea-Porter said.