The Hill:
Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas) has requested millions of dollars in earmarks that may have benefited a security firm he founded.
Ortiz, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, helped direct earmarks and federal grants worth tens of millions of dollars to the Port of Corpus Christi, the nation’s fifth largest port. Since 1997, the port – which is in Ortiz’s district -- has hired Amtex Global Services, Ortiz’s former firm, on contracts that have ranged from $900,0000 to more than $1 million annually. The company continues to pay Ortiz for the sale of his stake in it.
Ortiz sold his 55 percent ownership in the firm in late 2003 after media reports raised conflict-of-interest concerns and accusations of political retaliation against critics of Amtex Security. He noted the sale on his congressional financial disclosure forms for that year.
Yet financial disclosure reports filed by Ortiz between 2005 and 2010 show a $250,000 to $500,000 holding labeled Amtex Security, as well as $15,000 to $50,000 worth of annual “interest/capital gains.”
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Ethics watchdogs, however, said Ortiz still has a financial interest in the earmarks because the federal funds help provide work and a stream of income for Amtex.
“Whether or not they can afford to make those payments to him would rest on their continued viability…then he does have a financial interest [in the earmarks],” said Meredith McGehee, policy director of the Campaign Legal Center.
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Ortiz is in a tight race for reelection with Blake Farenthold and this disclosure is probably not going to be helpful.
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