By DENNIS CONRAD
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON - Sen. Dick Durbin has waded into a muddy,
multimillion-dollar fight over taxpayer-funded dredging projects at the
request of an Illinois-based government contractor that quietly has become a
significant campaign supporter.
Durbin says he's only trying to help Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. against
unfair foreign competition. But his efforts have irritated some fellow
lawmakers who blame him for holding up important legislation for the U.S.
Coast Guard, and a group representing port authorities has warned that
Durbin's plans could raise the cost of taxpayer-funded projects around the
country.
It's all part of the political maneuvering among the biggest players in the
rather obscure world of government waterway projects. Both sides have lined
up Washington lobbyists and inter-est groups to support them, and both have
made contributions to influential politicians.
Durbin is sponsoring legislation at the request of Great Lakes president
Douglas Mackie, a personal friend who met Durbin during his first run for the
Senate six years ago. Mackie said that after meeting Durbin, he helped
organize a fund-raiser for the senator that brought in "under $10,000" from
the dredging industry. He and other officials from the company based in the
Chicago suburb of Oak Brook, along with the company's political action
committee, have donated at least $6,000 to Durbin's Senate campaign fund in
the last six years.
But Great Lakes has made much bigger contributions since 2000 that indirectly
benefit Durbin, a Democrat from Springfield.
The company, which is barred under federal law from directly donating to
Durbin's Senate campaign fund, has donated $25,000 to the 21st Century
Leadership Fund, a political action committee controlled by Durbin that
operates under Illinois' much looser campaign fund-raising laws. It has also
donated $25,000 to the Illinois Democratic Party.
Federal law prohibits such state committee funds from being used in any
federal campaign, including Durbin's own re-election battle this fall with
GOP state Rep. Jim Durkin. But Durbin has donated money from the 21st Century
Fund to local and state candidates and party officials, strengthening his
hand among potential campaign supporters.
Durbin defends his work on behalf of Great Lakes, a century-old company
perhaps best known in Illinois for being partially blamed for the 1992 flood
in Chicago's business district that occurred after a freight tunnel collapsed
under the Chicago River.
"I think that what Great Lakes came to me with was a reasonable request,"
Durbin said in a recent interview. "It is the nature of the system that
companies will come to you, and, if I think they have a legitimate position
on an issue, I can support that position.
"I understand that people look at it and say, 'You're just doing this because
of the money.'"
The legislation would help Great Lakes, which largely is owned by New
York-based Citigroup Inc., in its competition with a Dutch-connected rival
for the lion's share of the estimated $1 billion in dredging work that is
awarded each year by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and port authorities
across the country.
Durbin met with Mackie and another Great Lakes official in July 2001,
according to Mike Daly, Durbin's chief political aide. The company officials
wanted his help in closing what they describe as a loophole in a 1992 federal
law that basically barred foreign-controlled companies from getting
government contracts for dredging work, such as silt removal from rivers and
harbors, in the United States.
The law provided a 30-year exception for Stuyvesant Dredging Co., owned by
Dutch-run Royal Boskalis Westminster, which had an American vessel under
charter to 2022. In 1998 the Dutch joined with American-owned Bean Dredging
Co. of Louisiana and began expanding their U.S. dredging operations, claiming
protection under the exception in the 1992 law.
Durbin said U.S.-based dredging contractors - including Great Lakes, Bean
Stuyvesant's biggest competitor - fear they will lose out to the
Dutch-connected company if the law isn't changed. His proposal would prohibit
Bean Stuyvesant from getting new contracts unless its joint 50-50 enterprise
is restructured 75-25 in favor of American ownership.
James Bean, chief executive officer of Bean Stuyvesant, says the Dutch don't
control the company. He contends that the goal of the Durbin amendment is to
drive his company out of competition for $50 million-plus contracts by
reducing its financial wherewithal for such large projects.
The American Association of Port Authorities, fearful the bill could reduce
competition and drive up bids on its projects, has urged Congress not to take
any action on Durbin's proposal without ordering a study first and then
hearings.
Durbin has sought to attach his proposed amendment to the multibillion-dollar
Coast Guard authorization bill, prompting Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., a Bean
Stuyvesant supporter, to block the bill's progress.
That has angered congressional supporters of the Coast Guard bill. Durbin
said he may try to attach his proposal to another must-pass bill when
Congress reconvenes in September.
Mackie said the $25,000 contribution to the 21st Century Fund, made Dec. 31,
2001, according to state election records, was intended to help Durbin with
party-building activities that would strengthen his prospects for re-election
in 2002. He said it was not made with the idea of securing Durbin's help.
"He's probably one of the most impressive congressmen or senators I've met,"
Mackie said. "He's not a man that would be bought in any shape or form."
The donation to the 21st Century Fund and the $25,000 given to the state
party a year earlier were the largest contributions the company has ever
given to any campaign fund, Mackie said.
Committees such as the 21st Century Fund - and a similar one created by House
Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. - allow a federal politician to raise large
sums of money from corporations, unions and others without any of the federal
limits or prohibitions on such donations.
"Often people say, 'How else can we help?' and sometimes he (Durbin) refers
them to the 21st Century Leadership Fund," said Daly, who also is the
bookkeeper for the fund. "And sometimes he tells them they can write a check
to the Illinois Democratic Party."
Daly said he did not have any specific recollection of either of the $25,000
contributions.
Durbin said he did not talk with Great Lakes about the $25,000 contributions
but said he would not be surprised if someone on his campaign staff had. He
noted that his Senate fund alone has taken in more than $12 million from
thousands of sources.
Mackie said the contribution to the state Democratic Party was to help with
Al Gore's presidential campaign and that it was made before the Nov. 7, 2000,
general election, rather than the December 15 receipt date reported by the
party in state election records. Party spokesman Steve Brown said the check
was dated Nov. 6, 2000 - one day before the election - but it was unclear why
its reported receipt date was more than a month later.