As if one gym wasn’t enough, Congress has appropriated $10.4 million to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, WA to construct its second physical fitness center. The base already has one fitness center that includes courts for raquetball, tennis, volleyball and basketball, as well as three softball fields, a swimming pool, and a gym with Nautilus equipment and free weights. What’s more, there are 10 private gyms within five miles of the base.

This $10.4 million for unnecessary fitness equipment is more like fat-laden pork than the road to good health.

On June 20, 1995 Rep. Edward Royce (R-CA) and Rep. David Minge (D-MN), Co-Chairs of the Pork Busters Coalition, cosponsored an amendment to the defense spending bill that would have blocked federal funding for the facility. According to Rep. Minge, the gym fails to meet the five-point military construction criteria adopted as the “sense of the Senate” in the FY95 National Defense Authorization Act.

“[W]ith … Bangor Submarine Base 15 miles away with a gym — a gym free to all active duty personnel — maybe we should buy a bus if there is overflow. But there is no evidence that there is overflow at the existing gym,” said Rep. Royce.

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Congress Continues “Cowboy Welfare”

The Senate voted on March 21 to continue grazing subsidies for corporate ranchers when it approved Sen. Pete Domenici’s (R-NM) Public Rangelands Management Act by a vote of 51-46. An amendment to the act by Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-AR) and Sen. Jim Jeffords (R-VT) to increase grazing fees lost 47-52. The Domenici bill would not significantly reform current grazing policies which cost taxpayers $70-$200 million a year.

Sen. Bumpers, speaking from the Senate floor stated, “We are not talking about what we are charging the small ranchers; we are talking about what Hewlett-Packard, Newmont Mining, Anheuser-Busch and the biggest corporations in America ought to pay.” The amendment would have raised the fee charged by the federal government for livestock owners to graze their herds on federal public lands.