Support Amendments to Strike Non-Emergency Spending from the So-Called Emergency Spending Bill

Dear Senator:

Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) Action urges you to support amendments to cut, or at least offset, non-emergency spending from the Senate version of H.R. 1591, the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill of 2007. In addition TCS urges you to oppose amendments to pile on more spending. Some of the more critical amendments are detailed below.

Support SA 648: Sen. Coburn amendment to eliminate $100 million for the August 2008 political nominating conventions.  These conventions are more than 15 months away and any additional security related spending can be resolved in the FY 2008 spending bills.

Support SA 657: Sen. Coburn amendment to offset requested agricultural disaster assistance out of the U.S. Department of Agriculture budget.

Support SA 749: Sen. Ensign amendment to strike Sec. 2302 from the bill. This provision waives legislatively mandated caps that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects cannot exceed predicted costs by more than 20% without re-approval. This 20-year old rule protects taxpayers from excessive cost overruns.

Support SA 702: Sen. DeMint amendment to strike $40 million in emergency funds for tree farms.

Support SA 650: Sen. McCain amendment to strike $6 million for sugar cane farmers.

Support SA 651: Sen. McCain amendment to strike $13 million for the Ewe Lamb Replacement Program which is part of the larger livestock disaster assistance.

These are just a few of the amendments that TCS Action supports. In addition TCS Action will support amendments to strike non-emergency funding, which Congress defined as: sudden, urgent, temporary and unforeseen. Many items in this nearly $122 billion supplemental do not meet that test. 

In addition, TCS Action opposes amendments that seek to add funding to the bill, particularly Senator Landrieu’s SA 642. This amendment would add $605 million to the bill to build the most expensive navigation lock in the country on the IndustrialCanal in New Orleans. This has nothing to do with Katrina recovery and is piggy-backing on a provision to provide $150 million for projects to improve New Orleans drainage. Furthermore, community opposition led the courts to order the Corps back to the drawing boards on the project’s Environmental Impact Statement. This is clearly not an emergency project.

Our nation faces critical needs that this supplemental spending bill is intended to address. But spending more on wasteful programs does little to increase security and may in fact distract government from meeting the basic needs of the citizenry. We urge you to support amendments to cut non-emergency spending in H.R. 1591 and oppose amendments to pile more spending on top. Please contact me or Steve Ellis, 202-546-8500 ext. 126 or steve@taxpayer.net with questions.

Sincerely,

Ryan Alexander
President

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