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Another Omnibus Spending Bill Loaded with Pork
The Heritage Foundation ^ | December 2, 2003 | Brian M. Riedl

Posted on 12/08/2003 7:48:30 PM PST by Calpernia


www.heritage.org

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Another Omnibus Spending Bill Loaded with Pork
by Brian M. Riedl
WebMemo #377

December 2, 2003 |

|


 

The congressional spending spree of the past few years is well-documented, and this year promises to be no different. Over the last four years, federal spending has increased from $16,000 per household to $20,000 per household, the highest level since World War II.[1]

 

The Medicare and energy bills, although experiencing different fates, share one common denominator: little reform at huge cost, while loaded with special-interest spending.

 

Congress’s continued fiscal irresponsibility is clearly exhibited in the thousands of pork projects contained in the fiscal year 2004 omnibus spending bill. Congress is set to bust its own budget cap in order to protect pork projects such as the Please Touch Museum and Trout Genome Mapping.

 

Historically, Congress funded grant programs and then asked federal agencies, governors, and mayors to competitively award the grants to the most capable applicants. But over the past few years, Congress has aggressively begun bypassing these agencies, governors, and mayors and selecting the grant recipients themselves, such as Police Athletic League and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (these projects selected by Congress instead of agencies are called earmarks, or pork projects). Grant seekers can no longer simply submit a persuasive grant proposal to an unbiased agency. Now, they must master the Washington influence game and hire a lobbyist to pursue their interest.

 

Predictably, an entire lobbying industry has emerged to secure pork projects for those willing to pay for their services. Organizations and local governments seeking federal money can choose between dozens of powerful lobbying firms who effectively trade campaign contributions for earmarks.[2]

 

Auctioning pork projects to the highest bidder reduces the number of merit-based grants for distribution by federal agencies, governors and mayors. These shortages induce Congress to expand these programs – and then earmark those new funds as well. Consequently, the number of pork projects skyrocketed from under 2,000 five years ago to 9,362 in the 2003 budget. Total spending on pork projects has correspondingly increased to over $23 billion.[3]

This trend continues in the fiscal year (FY) 2004 appropriations bills, which include approximately 10,000 earmarks. The FY 2004 omnibus appropriations bill (HR 2673), which combines the seven bills that have not yet been enacted, includes the following pork projects:

Congress can begin a new era of fiscal restraint by scrubbing the omnibus bill clean of pork projects, and reducing wasteful spending. Overwhelmed taxpayers deserve nothing less.

—Brian M. Riedl is Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.


[1] See Brian M. Riedl, “$20,000 per Household: The Highest Level of Federal Spending Since World War II” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 1710, December 2, 2003 at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/BG1710.cfm.
[2]See Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D., and Christopher B. Summers, “Can Congress Be Embarrassed into Ending Wasteful Pork-Barrel Spending?” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 1527, March 15, 2002 at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/BG1527.cfm.
[3] According to Citizens Against Government Waste, www.cagw.org.


© 2003 The Heritage Foundation All Rights Reserved.
214 Massachusetts Ave NE
Washington, DC 20002-4999
phone - 202.546.4400 | fax - 202.546.8328
e-mail - staff@heritage.org


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: brianriedl; budget; federalspending; grants; heritagefoundation; politics; pork; porkbarrel
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Amount Pork Project Recipient

$725,000 Please Touch Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

$200,000 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Cleveland, Ohio

$1,800,000 2003 Women’s World Cup Tournament

$6,000,000 Police Athletic League

$250,000 Call Me Mister program, Clemson University

$500,000 New England Amer-I-Can Program

$150,000 Rock School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

$16,000 National Distance Running Hall of Fame, Utica, New York

$225,000 Hawaii statehood celebration

$325,000 Construction of a swimming pool in Salinas, California

$100,000 History competition during National History Day in Iowa

$175,000 Therapeutic Horse man ship center, Hoffman Homes for Youth, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

$315,000 Formosan Subterranean Termite research

$100,000 Public service recognition week

$50,000 Father Maloney’s Boy’s Haven, Louisville, Kentucky

$75,000 Vintage Radio Programs and Jazz Museum, East Stroudsburg University

$100,000 Kids Rock Free educational program, Fender Museum of the Arts Foundation, Corona, California

$100,000 Renovation of the historic Coca-Cola building in Macon, Georgia

$100,000 Construction of an intergenerational daycare center in San Fernando Valley, California

$372,000 B&O Railroad Museum emergency restoration, Baltimore, Maryland

$75,000 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, Washington, DC

$225,000 Construction of Blue-Gray Civil War Theme Park, Kentucky

$75,000 North Pole Transit System JARC Program, Alaska

$250,000 Feasibility study of establishing Suffolk (Virginia) Workforce Development Center

$350,000 Construction for a folk cultural center in Pinellas County, Florida

$400,000 Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky

$90,000 Olive fruitfly research

$150,000 Traffic light, Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District, New York

$100,000 People for People, Inc., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

$100,000 Amphitheater construction, North Star Productions, Inc., Bracken County, Kentucky

$2,000,000 First Tee program

$150,000 Regional Youth Baseball Complex Lancaster, California

$100,000 John Singelton Mosby Museum Foundation in Warrenton, Virginia

$180,000 Seafood waste research, Fairbanks, Alaska

$400,000 Walla Walla Public Schools, Walla Walla, Washington

$900,000 Kincaid Park Trail Connection, Alaska

$20,000 Southern Star Development Corporation, Louisville, Kentucky

$85,000 Comprehensive Transportation Plan for Lewisburg, West Virginia

$100,000 Norman Hall project, University of Florida

$225,000 Museum of Aviation Foundation Inc, Warner Robins, Georgia

$250,000 Lou Frey Institute of Politics, University of Central Florida

$270,000 Sustainable olive production

$5,000,000 Kennedy Center Potomac River Pedestrian and Bike Path

$100,000 National Civil War Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

$200,000 Cedar glades research

$250,000 Theater construction, Studio for the Arts, Pocahontas, Arkansas

$2,000,000 Intermodal Transload Facility, Quincy, Washington

$110,000 Construction of a dental clinic in Bassfield, Mississippi

$220,000 New Mexico Retail Association, Albuquerque, New Mexico

$400,000 Davenport Music History Museum, Davenport, Iowa

$3,000,000 US 12 Widening, Wallula Junction to Walla Walla, Washington

$25,000 Alex Haley House Museum, Henning, Tennessee

$225,000 Rialto Square Theater, Joliet, Illinois

$5,000,000 Project SOCRATES

$90,000 Rabbit Run Community Arts Association, Madison, Ohio

$150,000 Renovation off Farmers market, Dallas, Texas

$200,000 Merit School of Music’s after school program

$200,000 Advanced Traffic Analysis Center, North Dakota

$250,000 Nevada Test Site Oral History Project

$400,000 National Center for American Revolution, Wayne, Pennsylvania

$1,000,000 Hal Rogers Parkway, Kentucky

$1,000,000 Ship Creek Improvements, Alaska

$2,000,000 I-SAFE America

$50,000 National Canal Museum, Easton, Pennsylvania

$100,000 Mystic Seaport, the Museum of America and the Sea

$200,000 Renovation of First National Bank Building, Greenfield, Massachusetts

$250,000 Martha’s Village and Kitchen, Indio, California

$270,000 Potato storage

$1,000,000 Transylvania Community Hospital, Brevard, North Carolina

$6,000,000 Treasure Island Bridge

$80,000 Hot Springs Bike Trail, Arkansas

$90,000 Karnal bunt research, Manhattan, Kansas

$175,000 Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, Kansas

$210,000 O. Winston Link Museum, Roanoke, Virginia

$250,000 James S. Taylor Memorial Home, Louisville, Kentucky

$250,000 Museum of Broadcast Communications, Chicago, Illinois

$500,000 Traffic Signal Replacement Program, New Rochelle, New York

$2,000,000 Parents Anonymous

$100,000 "Servicing our Youth"

$275,000 Refurbishment of the Coach George E. Ford Center, Powder Springs, Georgia

$150,000 Piper’s Opera House Programs, Inc., Virginia City, Nevada

$270,000 U.S. Vegetable Lab

$1,250,000 US-2, Dover Bridge, Bonner County, Idaho

$25,000 Capitol Area Boy Scouts

$113,000 Healing Place, Louisville, Kentucky

$500,000 Jim Thorpe Bridge Renovation Project, Pennsylvania

$600,000 Web Wise Kids

$800,000 Mammoth Lakes Bus Purchase, California

$100,000 Renovate the Jamestown (Ohio) Opera House

$400,000 Ed Roberts Campus transit center, California

$750,000 The Doe Fund’s Ready, Willing & Able program

$160,000 Grapevine Bus Purchase, Texas

$500,000 Round Rock Higher Education Center, Southwest Texas State University

$1,400,000 Translational Genomics Research Institute, Phoenix, Arizona

$25,000 Transylvania County, North Carolina, Sheriff’s Citizens Observer Patrol and Education Team

$200,000 Chaldean Community Culture Center, West Bloomfield, Michigan

$300,000 Milwaukee Summer Stars

$450,000 Johnny Appleseed Heritage Center, Inc., Ashland County, Ohio

$750,000 Intelligent Transportation Systems, Wichita Transit Authority

$1,500,000 Operation Streetsweeper

$125,000 Planning for new route over Cape Fear River, North Carolina

$300,000 Omnitrans—Paratransit Vehicles, California

$500,000 Bike path, St. Petersburg, Florida

$1,000,000 WestStart Vehicular Flywheel Project, Washington

$15,000 Pines of Peace, Inc., Ontario, New York

$75,000 U.S. Dream Academy, Inc., Columbia, Maryland

$200,000 Oneont Bus Replacement, New York

$450,000 Trout Genome Mapping

$500,000 LOVE Social Services, Fairbanks, Alaska

$750,000 Broken Bow rail spur, Oklahoma

$2,000,000 Tools for Tolerance program, California

$150,000 National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation

$1,000,000 DelTrac Statewide Integration, Delaware

1 posted on 12/08/2003 7:48:31 PM PST by Calpernia
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To: Calpernia
The republican first conservative second crowd will come out in droves and try to somehow justify this.
2 posted on 12/08/2003 7:52:27 PM PST by luckydevi
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To: luckydevi
I would like to see how it is justified. I don't know any conservatives that are NOT for privatizing these grants.
3 posted on 12/08/2003 7:55:21 PM PST by Calpernia (Innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does.)
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To: luckydevi
$150,000 Traffic light, Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District, New York

The tenth amenmdment, like the second, is not only truly dead, it's most sincerly dead.

Congress now worries about individual traffic signals. Even Alexander Hamilton has got to be whirling in his grave over this one.

4 posted on 12/08/2003 8:01:04 PM PST by El Gato (Federal Judges can twist the Constitution into anything.. Or so they think.)
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To: Calpernia
Good lord, did we somehow leave the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth out this year??
5 posted on 12/08/2003 8:05:31 PM PST by GeronL (My tagline for rent..... $5 per month or 550 posts/replies, whichever comes first... its a bargain!!)
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To: El Gato
$15,000 Pines of Peace, Inc., Ontario, New York

Let me guess, federal dollars paid for kids to go out and collect pine cones and paint them in peace colors and send to Bush?

6 posted on 12/08/2003 8:06:50 PM PST by GeronL (My tagline for rent..... $5 per month or 550 posts/replies, whichever comes first... its a bargain!!)
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To: Calpernia
Not a bad total for the pork barrel

$ 68,341,000.00
7 posted on 12/08/2003 8:10:56 PM PST by glaseatr
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To: luckydevi
I am very upset that I can only identify $810,000.00 for Texas. I don't think this is enough.
8 posted on 12/08/2003 8:15:45 PM PST by Ben Ficklin
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To: Ben Ficklin
sarcasm?
9 posted on 12/08/2003 8:17:24 PM PST by luckydevi
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To: GeronL
" $15,000 Pines of Peace, Inc., Ontario, New YorkLet me guess, federal dollars paid for kids to go out and collect pine cones and paint them in peace colors and send to Bush?"

hmmm, New york, probably going to Hillary or some RINO congress-critter.


10 posted on 12/08/2003 8:35:09 PM PST by WOSG (The only thing that will defeat us is defeatism itself)
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To: glaseatr
They didn't say that was ALL of the pork.. just this bill, maybe they missed some too
11 posted on 12/08/2003 8:37:37 PM PST by GeronL (My tagline for rent..... $5 per month or 550 posts/replies, whichever comes first... its a bargain!!)
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To: WOSG
I won't bother to actually do a google search or something though, small fries those....
12 posted on 12/08/2003 8:38:44 PM PST by GeronL (My tagline for rent..... $5 per month or 550 posts/replies, whichever comes first... its a bargain!!)
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To: Calpernia
Foot note from a 2103 history book:

George Bush (the son)is remembered for his leading role in starting the "socialist spending orgy" as it came to be known. The years 2000 - 2008 turned the Republican party from the party of fiscal responsibility and limited government into a second Socialist party. The ensuing competition to see who could spend more to buy the voters caused the USA to lose its grip on democracy when in 2014 control of the USA was turned over to the UN.

After years of protracted talks the UN finally agreed to write off 80% of the USA international debt and stop interest from accruing.The current citizens are expected to pay off the UN directed international debt repayment in only 15 more years with the special 20% income tax on top of the 60% regular tax rate. While today USA is the punch line to jokes, it does produce some coal and food crops, unbelievably at one time it was a technological leader of the world.

13 posted on 12/08/2003 8:53:25 PM PST by paulk
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To: luckydevi
"$5,000,000 Kennedy Center Potomac River Pedestrian and Bike Path"

For a sidewalk? WTF?
14 posted on 12/08/2003 8:58:53 PM PST by At _War_With_Liberals (Hey TIME, "No blood for interviews")
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To: luckydevi
Sarcasm? Not Hardly.

I probly shouldn't be complaing seeing as we have doing so well on the Urban Park Renewal and Restoration money. Not to mention that the Corp of Engineers will be taking care of the flooding on Johnson Creek around the Ballpark in Arlington. Wink-Wink. Attaboy George.

15 posted on 12/08/2003 9:01:13 PM PST by Ben Ficklin
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To: Calpernia
The following is the sum total of congressional spending authority (sans some allowances created by subsequent amendments). The opening paragraph is expanded upon in the succeeding clauses. Hence the term,"general welfare" refers to what follows in Section 8, not to the "Please Touch Museum" in Philly, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, or to any other misappropriation of the public's money conceived by a corrupt Congress.

U.S. CONSTITUTION

Article I

Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;

To establish post offices and post roads;

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;--And

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

16 posted on 12/08/2003 9:18:26 PM PST by MadeInOhio
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To: At _War_With_Liberals
For a sidewalk? WTF?

Shush...it's a code name for a clandestine project. Bills like this probably contain the hidden budgets for the intelligence agencies. And then, maybe not.

17 posted on 12/08/2003 9:19:54 PM PST by Consort
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To: GeronL
$15,000 Pines of Peace, Inc., Ontario, New York
Let me guess, federal dollars paid for kids to go out and collect pine cones and paint them in peace colors and send to Bush?


(laughs) Nice try. It's actually a hospice - described as "a residence for the terminally ill, where support and care are given in a home-like setting of personal comfort and warmth. "

Ain't google a wunnerful thing?

Sadim
18 posted on 12/08/2003 10:29:33 PM PST by sadimgnik
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To: sadimgnik
(laughs) Nice try. It's actually a hospice - described as "a residence for the terminally ill, where support and care are given in a home-like setting of personal comfort and warmth. "

wouldn't it be cheaper if these people had private insurance that paid for their care?? Meaning that the hospice didn't get government funding?

19 posted on 12/08/2003 10:34:32 PM PST by GeronL (My tagline for rent..... $5 per month or 550 posts/replies, whichever comes first... its a bargain!!)
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To: sadimgnik
$100,000 Kids Rock Free educational program, Fender Museum of the Arts Foundation, Corona, California

Lets try this one, I'll guess and you look it up.

A tony music program for minority kids in a programmed named after Freddy fender... who is in jail for intoxication manslaughter.... (or something like that =o)

20 posted on 12/08/2003 10:36:36 PM PST by GeronL (My tagline for rent..... $5 per month or 550 posts/replies, whichever comes first... its a bargain!!)
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