April 14, 2008
The group Citizens Against Government Waste released its annual list of government pork projects about two weeks ago.
El Paso's U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes was on the list. On April 5, the El Paso Times editorial page bravely took a stand in its Saturday "Cheers and Jeers" section against government pork by giving those on the list a "Jeer." Or maybe the Times was just giving government waste a poke. Anyway, in the process, the editorial page threw Reyes under the "Jeer" bus by including his pork appropriation in its blurb.
So NPT decided to take a look at the so-called pork projects. Pork in El Paso? Or just bringing home the bacon?
To add some sauce to this stew, in the same section, the Times gave Reyes a "Cheer" for filing a $5 billion bill to add inspection and infrastructure capacity to border ports. Such is needed, of course, but surely a consistent analysis would see the potential for pork tucked into a $5 billion bill.
What follows is the news release from Citizens Against Government Waste, and then the list of appropriations secured by Reyes that the group calls pork. Decide for yourselves if it's pork, and who deserves the "Jeer."
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If Washington, D.C. were to export a commodity, it would be rhetoric. Politicians especially love to talk about fiscal responsibility. On March 13, 2008 the Senate had an opportunity to test that rhetoric when Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) offered an amendment to impose a one-year moratorium on earmarks. Pork beat talk as the measure failed by a vote of 29-71.
In the House of Representatives, Republicans want a one-year moratorium but will not unilaterally disarm. Democrats won’t agree because of objections from big porkers such as House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.). On Feb. 11, 2008, Roll Call noted, “Every private entity that received a special project from the Pennsylvania Democrat in last year’s defense spending bill had given him political money at some point since 2005.” At his Feb. 27, 2008 fundraiser for lobbyists, Murtha received a standing ovation.
The latest installment of Citizens Against Government Waste’s (CAGW) 18-year exposé of pork-barrel spending includes $3,000,000 for The First Tee; $1,950,000 for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service; and $188,000 for the Lobster Institute in Maine.
In fiscal year 2008, Congress stuffed 11,610 projects (the second highest total ever) into the 12 appropriations bills worth $17.2 billion. The 11,610 projects represent a 337 percent increase over the 2,658 projects in fiscal year 2007. The $17.2 billion is a 30 percent increase over the fiscal year 2007 total of $13.2 billion. Only the Defense and Homeland Security bills included earmarks in fiscal year 2007, so comparisons of other bills are made between fiscal years 2008 and 2006. Total pork identified by CAGW since 1991 adds up to $271 billion.
Alaska led the nation with $556 per capita ($380 million). The runners up were Hawaii with $221 per capita ($283 million) and North Dakota with $208 per capita ($133 million).
The one glimmer of hope is that for the first time taxpayers were able to see, for the most part, which members requested which projects. Out of the 11,610 projects in the 2008 Pig Book there were 11,146 disclosed projects worth $13.8 billion and 464 undisclosed projects worth $3.4 billion.
To paraphrase Robert Frost: Taxpayers, and members of Congress, still have many miles to go before they sleep without earmarks.
The 1,188 projects, totaling $2.8 billion, in this year’s Congressional Pig Book Summary symbolize the most egregious and blatant examples of pork. As in previous years, all of the items in the Congressional Pig Book Summary meet at least one of CAGW’s seven criteria, but most satisfy at least two:
* Requested by only one chamber of Congress;
* Not specifically authorized;
* Not competitively awarded;
* Not requested by the President;
* Greatly exceeds the President’s budget request or the previous year’s funding;
* Not the subject of congressional hearings; or
* Serves only a local or special interest.
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Reyes "Pork" Projects? You decide
-- $1,527,234 Sustainable Agricultural Freshwater Conservation (Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, Research and Education: Federal Administration) AG
-- $1,235,292 Efficient Irrigation [NM, TX] (Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, Research and Education: Special Research Grants) AG
-- $737,799 Center for North American Studies (Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, Research and Education: Federal Administration) AG
-- $1,714,911 Efficient Irrigation [NM, TX] (Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, Research and Education: Extension Activities) AG
-- $1,222,000 El Paso Broadband Mobile Network (Law Enforcement Technology and Interoperability - Community Oriented Policing Service) COM
-- $1,600,000 Air and Missile Defense Instrumentation System (Other Procurement - Army) DEF
-- $1,600,000 Cognitive air defense simulators (Operation and Maintenance - Army) DEF
-- $1,960,000 Mobile Optical Tracking System (MOTS) (Research, Development, Test and Evaluation - Army) DEF
-- $800,000 Biosurety Development and Management Program (Research, Development, Test and Evaluation - Defense Wide) DEF
-- $1,000,000 Miniaturized sensors for small and tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (MINISENS) (Research, Development, Test and Evaluation - Army) DEF
-- $1,000,000 Tactical SIPRNET (Intelligence) DEF
-- $2,600,000 Operational/technical training validation testbed for maneuver units at Fort Bliss (Operation and Maintenance - Army) DEF
-- $140,712 El Paso (Corps of Engineers: Construction) ENERGY
-- $123,000 Sparks Arroya Colonia, El Paso County (Corps of Engineers: General Investigation) ENERGY
-- $282,000 SER-Jobs for Progress National, Dual-language Financial Literacy Technology Training (Small Business Administration) FINSER
-- $4,922,000 *EI Paso / Brownsville set aside from Mexico Border funds (EPA - State and Tribal Assistance Grants) INT
-- $390,000 Thomason General Hospital, El Paso, for facilities and equipment (Health Resources and Services Administration - Department of Health and Human Services) LABHHS
-- $219,000 Centro de Salud Familiar Le Fe, El Paso, for an elementary charter school, which may include equipment (Fund for the Improvement of Education - Department of Education) LABHHS
-- $536,000 Texas Technology Univ. Health Science. Ctr., El Paso and Lubbock, for fac. equip. W. TX Cent. for Flu Rsch, Ed. and Treattment (HRSA - Department of Health and Human Services) LABHHS
-- $97,000 Project ARRIBA, El Paso, for workforce development in the West Texas region (Employment and Training Administration - Department of Labor) LABHHS
-- $487,000 National Hispanic Medical Association, for a Hispanic health portal to provide online health education materials (Office of the Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services) LABHHS
-- $121,000 AVANCE, Inc., El Paso, for parenting education programs (Fund for the Improvement of Education - Department of Education) LABHHS
-- $1,000,000 Medical parking garage, Fort Bliss (Army) MILCON
-- $490,000 City of El Paso Paratransit Van Replacement (Buses & Bus Facilities) TRANS
-- $392,000 City of El Paso, Neighborhood Circulator (Buses & Bus Facilities) TRANS
-- $490,000 University of Texas at El Paso, reconstruction of off-ramp (Interstate Maintenance Discretionary) TRANS