Petrelis Files

SF Chronicle: Pelosi, Please Disclose HIV/AIDS Earmark

Maybe with the SF Chronicle printing my letter today, Rep. Pelosi and her staff will deign to reply to the query I sent them on November 21 about this HIV/AIDS earmark.

From the Chronicle:

Letters to the Editor
December 2

Pelosi, please disclose

Editor -- Your editorial on ethics and earmarks ("Ethics -- do it right," Nov. 27) says there "is no reason to conceal the author of an 'earmark' -- the spending line-items that are now stuffed into legislation anonymously." I couldn't agree more.

Last week I sent U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, a series of basic questions about a $1.5 million earmark for an HIV/AIDS demonstration project to be conducted by the San Francisco health department. I am trying to ascertain if she is behind the earmark and would also like for her office to provide me with the contract for the project.

One way to bring much-needed ethical reform to Congress would be for Pelosi to fully disclose any and all of her recent earmarks, or if she hasn't any, to clearly state that. But if Pelosi is behind any earmarks, and the $1.5 HIV/AIDS earmark is hers, then I hope she will explain her reasons for orchestrating the grant to the city's health department.

MICHAEL PETRELIS
San Francisco