LEWISTON – Debate over earmarks – targeted spending initiatives penned into massive bills by individual lawmakers – erupted again this week in Congress.

Maine Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe defend their work, which includes more than $1 million for two projects in Auburn and Lewiston.

All this week, the Senate has been working on an omnibus spending package, a compilation of nine appropriation bills not completed by the previous Congress, and is likely to vote on it in the coming days. The House passed the legislation last week.

Maine’s Republican senators, who composed their list jointly, said some earmarks are a waste, but not theirs.

“Frankly, it makes me angry that so many colleagues abused the system and made a mockery of it,” Snowe said in an interview Thursday. “This isn’t our wish list; these were asked for by the people of Maine.”

Collins said she and Snowe have an evaluation process in place for developing their list of funding requests, and not all make the cut.

“People have to justify them and they must have community support,” she said Thursday.

Included in the spending bill is $760,000 to the city of Auburn to build a 1,900-foot multiuse trail along Park Avenue, between Park Avenue School and Auburn Middle School, according to the earmark list released by Snowe and Collins. Lewiston would receive $333,000 in funding for a workforce development program targeted to first-generation refugee adults.

Snowe said despite the high-profile abuses, such as former Sen. Ted Stevens’ $400 million request for the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” in Alaska, the alternative to earmarks could be worse.

“I’m torn about this issue, to be honest with you,” she said. “But the fact is, you have the choice between a faceless bureaucrat making a spending decision or an elected representative that can be held accountable for their actions making that decision.”

Snowe said Congress could try working without earmarks, to see what would happen.

“It bothers me,” she said. “Maybe we should start over; maybe they don’t have a legitimate public purpose. I just don’t know if Maine would get a fair shake. I can have a voice here (in Congress); I don’t know if I can have one within an agency.”

Earmark requests included in the $410 billion bill by Maine’s delegation total more than $20 million.

Both senators agreed that transparency was key to restoring public confidence in the process.

“There’s no doubt there are wasteful earmarks,” Collins said. “I make my list public; it’s available to anyone who wants to see it. They should all be posted on Web sites and available to public scrutiny.”

Snowe said earmarks should be examined for potential conflicts of interest, as well as what percentage of overall spending they represent.

“The test is if it can survive the light of day, rather than be tucked in during the dark of night,” she said.

Snowe said she would likely vote for the bill, if it wasn’t changed too much in the amendment process.

Collins said unless changes were made to the bill that would eliminate funding for programs already receiving stimulus money, she was planning to vote against it.

“I have a lot of concerns about this bill,” she said. “The duplicative spending, such as funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, should have been trimmed out.”

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