A high-ranking California Republican congressman preserved funding for a defense project critical to a New York investment company that raised more than $130,000 for him, according to a published report Thursday.

Rep. Jerry Lewis, who now chairs the House Appropriations Committee, denied wrongdoing in response to the USA Today story. He said he had no knowledge of the connection between the investment firm Cerberus Capital Management and the $8.8 billion project to build a secure computer network for the Navy and Marines until he heard about it from USA Today.

"It is absolutely and unequivocally false to suggest that any decision on funding for the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet was in any way based on a lobbyist's request, or as a favor to someone who was donating campaign funds," Lewis said...

The day after the fundraiser, the House passed Lewis' defense spending bill that preserved funding for the Navy project. The money remained intact in the final House-Senate version of the spending bill that Lewis helped negotiate.

Lewis, meanwhile, was preparing his bid to become House Appropriations Committee chairman - a contest in which fundraising is key. Lewis' Future Leaders PAC gave $407,000 to 69 House candidates in the 2004 election. The Cerberus-related money amounted to nearly a third of that amount.

Lewis told USA Today that Cerberus' fundraising "played a very significant role" in the fact he won the post a year ago...