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Lawmakers Add Parochial Projects to War Spending Bill
Washington,
D.C. - The
following is a written statement by Keith Ashdown,
Vice President of Policy
at Taxpayers for Common Sense on the Emergency Supplemental
Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror,
and Tsunami Relief Act, 2005:
Lawmakers
took advantage of this nation’s generosity
for our men and women in uniform to pass a hodgepodge
of random, special interest provisions that have nothing
to do with fighting wars or responding to emergencies.
In fact, the random provisions in this legislation
are as much of a national emergency as Jennifer and
Brad splitting up. Unfortunately, hijacking must-pass
bills to get special interest pork is becoming all
too common on Capitol Hill. This is just the latest
example of our elected officials putting special interests
before the interests of voters.
In
our mind, the Senate is more to blame for this embarrassment
than the
House. The House passed a pretty
clean bill. Senators hijacked it and started spending
our money like it was their own. In conference, the
House members said “me too” and added numerous
local provisions to the final bill.
As the House vote today proved, this legislation will
pass with significant margins. It really is horrific
what steps lawmakers will take to bring home the bacon.
Highlights of provisions added to the legislation:
- $2 million for the National Center for Manufacturing
Sciences in Michigan.
- $825,000 for research and development in California
to advance the state of metal hydride hydrogen storage.
This earmark was added by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
- $1 million for the National Energy Technology Laboratory
in Pennsylvania.
- $825,000 for cybersecurity at Department of Energy
laboratories using CimTrak technology.
- $2 million for desalination activities at the Tularosa
Basin desalination facility in New Mexico.
- $500,000 for Liberty Little Squaw Creek sewer upgrade.
- $1 million for Lake County, Concord Township sanitary
sewer line improvement.
- $350,000 for St. Croix Falls Wisconsin wastewater
infrastructure project. This was added at the request
of Rep. David Obey (D-WI), ranking Democrat on the
House Appropriations Committee.
- The senate had $23 million for capitol architect
activities associated with the new baseball stadium.
The conferees cut it to 4.1 million and removed any
mention of baseball.
- $150,000 City of Oldsmar, Florida for water and wastewater
infrastructure
32.5 million for Camp Lejeune North Carolina.
- $2 million to upgrade chemistry laboratories at Drew
University in New Jersey.
Highlights of provision in the initial legislation
that made the final cut:
-
Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS), Senate Appropriations
Chairman got a provision
that protects Mississippi-based
Northrop Grumman's Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula by
forcing the Pentagon to build it’s new DD(X)
destroyer in both Mississippi and Maine, rather than
picking just one, a move that the military estimates
could save $300 million per ship produced.
- $4 million inserted by Senator Pete Domenici. He
earmarked $4 million in previously appropriated Department
of Energy funds to clean up Los Alamos County land
that was formally owned by the NNSA.
- $10 million transfer to Pajarito Plateau Homesteaders
Compensation Fund, also obtained by Senator Domenici
(R-NM).
- $10 million for expansion of wastewater facilities
in Swiftwater Pennsylvania.
- $35 million – This provision reaches way back
and changes language passed in 1992 that authorized
$20 million for a wastewater treatment project in DeSoto
County, Mississippi and changes the authorization to
$55 million.
- $24 million, down from $32 million in the Senate
bill, for maintenance of forest roads in California.
- $2 million for Southeast regional cooling, heating
and power and Bio-Fuel Application Center.
- $3 million for the University of Texas Southwestern
Medical Center, inserted by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.
- $500,000 for the Desalination plant at the University
of Nevada-Reno.
- $500,000 for the Oral history of the negotiated settlement
project at the University of Reno.
- $4 million for the Fire Sciences Academy in Elk Nevada.
- $5 million authorization increase for the Fort Peck
Fish Hatchery.
Provisions that didn't survive:
- $26 million for the National Nuclear Security Administration
to move nuclear materials from Los Alamos to Nevada.
- $15 million for the Manoa watershed.
- $14.8 million for the University of Hawaii.
- $95 million for agricultural and water projects in
Nevada requested by Senator Harry Reid (D-NV).
- $100 million loan guarantee for a coal facility in
Pennsylvania requested by Senator Rick Santorium (R-PA).
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