Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Lobbyist Paul Magliocchetti was a big winner when Congress failed this year to limit lawmakers' ability to slip new federal projects into spending bills.

Companies represented by Magliocchetti's lobbying firm, the PMA Group, won at least 64 special projects requested by members of Congress in the fiscal 2006 defense-spending legislation. That's more than twice as many ``earmarks'' as clients of any other Washington lobbying firm got.

``That's an awful lot of earmarks for one firm to get and I think symbolizes the way in which this process works today,'' said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a non-partisan group that advocates for tougher ethics rules in Congress.

Earmarking, where lawmakers insert funds for special projects in broader legislation without public debate, has surged in the past 12 years. The success of Magliocchetti, a former Democratic aide on the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee, illustrates the rapid growth of a part of the lobbying industry that specializes in obtaining such projects for clients.

Congress allocated a record $71.77 billion in 2006 to 15,832 special projects, more than double the $29.11 billion spent on 4,155 pork-barrel projects in 1994, when Democrats last controlled Congress, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. The Arlington, Virginia-based PMA Group has seen its revenue triple to $15.4 million from about $5 million since 1999.

Earmarking has also been at the center of recent bribery scandals, including one that led to the imprisonment of former Representative Randy Cunningham, a California Republican.

Access to Congress

Magliocchetti's group is among a handful of lobbying firms that emphasize defense earmarks. His firm has gained access to key lawmakers by using a staff of experts with military and congressional funding experience, and by maintaining a steady flow of campaign donations.

Four of the six Democrats and two of the nine Republicans on the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee count PMA Group among their leading campaign donors, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based non-profit group that tracks campaign-spending issues.

They include Representatives John Murtha of Pennsylvania and Peter Visclosky of Indiana, both Democrats, and Republicans David Hobson of Ohio and Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey.

Lockheed, Boeing

PMA Group's clients include defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., as well as dozens of smaller companies. The customers who have paid the highest fees over the years include DRS Technologies Inc. of New Jersey, and EDO Corp. of New York.

Magliocchetti didn't return calls seeking an interview. His office referred inquiries to the company's outside attorney, Carmen Jacobs. ``They don't give interviews as a matter of policy,'' Jacobs said. ``Write whatever article you want.''

PMA Group's clients seem well-represented in the 2007 defense legislation, though House Republican leaders say they are trying to keep pork in this year's defense bill to $5 billion, down from last year's $9.43 billion. For the first six months of this year, PMA Group's lobbying fees were $7.66 million from 122 clients, almost all of them seeking help winning defense contracts through legislation, according to PMA disclosures.

``You need to make personal sales,'' said Alex Knott, a political analyst at the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity, on why companies feel they need to hire earmark lobbyists.

`Screaming for Oversight'

``Something like 31 out of 34 of their lobbyists'' have worked for Congress or the military, he said of the PMA Group. ``They hire people who work directly in the Defense Department because of the great understanding they bring as well as the personal connections they can utilize,'' added Knott, whose center issued a report on PMA Group and other lobbying firms in 2004.

``It is more than a cottage industry these days,'' said Winslow Wheeler, director of the military-reform project at the Center for Defense Information, a Washington-based organization that researches national security affairs. ``It is a system that is screaming for oversight.''

Lawmakers have taken only limited steps to curb earmarks. The House of Representatives passed a rule change Sept. 14 requiring that members who sponsor non-federal projects be identified in tax and appropriations bills. Most defense-bill earmarks designate money to military installations or projects, so members carrying out Magliocchetti's requests for clients aren't covered.

`Sentinel Net'

For example, tucked into the fiscal 2007 defense-spending bill passed by the House in June was $2.5 million for a specific sensor technology called ``Sentinel Net,'' designed to help protect U.S. aircraft carriers from terrorist attacks while in harbor.

Representative Norm Dicks, a Washington state Democrat, announced last December that he had put $1 million for Sentinel Net into the fiscal 2006 bill. Another $1.1 million earmark for the technology is in the 2005 bill.

The company that makes Sentinel Net isn't named in any of the legislation, though Dicks's announcement said the money was for 21st Century Systems Inc., a PMA Group client.

Strategic Locations

21st Century is a software developer with 100 employees. It was started in Nebraska by Alexander Stoyen, a professor, who has since moved the company to Arlington, Virginia, near the Pentagon. The company has opened offices in the states or districts of several key House and Senate members, including Bremerton, Washington, in Dicks's district. The company received at least five earmarks in the last defense bill, worth a total of $8.9 million.

The projects were listed in charts in a 533-page report as additions that President George W. Bush hadn't requested to the Navy research and development budget.

Though the sponsors weren't identified in the report, a variety of lawmakers besides Dicks, including Democratic Representative Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii and Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, took credit for the funding in press releases.

Reed announced in December that he had obtained $1.5 million for the company, which has a small office in Middletown, Rhode Island, for shipboard automated reconstruction capability. The money was added to the Senate legislation as part of a package of amendments unanimously approved in a floor vote.

When the Senate passed its version of the 2007 defense- spending bill earlier this month, Reed cited $3 million for another 21st Century project, on ``submarine automated simulation,'' among the $80 million he had brought home to Rhode Island.

`Smart at This'

Abercrombie took credit for the $2.9 million in the bill for another 21st Century project in the 2006 bill, for a software suite for submarines.

``The lobby companies have been smart at this and been able to say, `This is where it's going,' and they are able to contact these guys and say, `We'll run interference for you,'' Abercrombie said in an interview. He said he didn't recall whether a PMA Group lobbyist asked him to sponsor the provision.

Abercrombie jokes that among the four members of the Hawaii delegation, Senator Daniel Inouye enjoys the widest reputation for bringing home federal dollars.

`Everybody Gets Credit'

``We try to divide it up so everybody gets credit,'' Abercrombie said. ``When we are successful in getting an appropriation, I feel pretty good about it because these are scarce dollars that everybody is competing for fiercely.''

Stoyen didn't return several calls seeking comment. William Berl, a former PMA Group lobbyist who is now at 21st Century, said in a telephone interview that about half of the software company's $11 million in annual revenue is from earmarks.

The company hired PMA Group for its ``knowledge of the legislative process,'' he said. Company officials may go in to visit lawmakers and their staffs to seek an earmark, or they may go in with PMA Group lobbyists.

Democrat Visclosky, a member of the defense appropriations subcommittee, made no such announcements.

PMA Group is listed as Visclosky's number one career donor by the Center for Responsive Politics, with $137,500 in contributions since 1989. The United Auto Workers was second, with $90,000.

Visclosky's chief of staff, Richard Kaelin, went to work for the PMA Group. After the congressman got $7 million appropriated for a new Purdue University technology center in his hometown of Merrillville, 21st Century and four other out-of-state companies, all of them PMA Group clients, opened offices there.

To contact the reporters on this story: William Roberts in Washington wroberts@Bloomberg.net; Charles R. Babcock in Washington at cbabcock1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 19, 2006 16:44 EDT