The Senate Supplemental - A Case of Frivolous Spending, Says CAGW

6/5/2002

From: Sean Rushton or Mark Carpenter, 202-467-5300, both of Citizens Against Government Waste; Web: http://www.cagw.org

WASHINGTON, June 5 -- Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) criticized the Senate for moving forward on a supplemental bill that will decimate the President's attempts to protect the nation. "Instead of funding the President's full request for national defense and homeland security, the Senate bill includes dozens of low-priority items," said CAGW President Tom Schatz. "This bill ignores explicit instructions from President Bush to remain at $27 billion. Senators, particularly Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), are irresponsibly squandering billions of dollars to protect hometown pork instead of the American people."

Schatz added, "It is clear that the Senate is not taking the war on terrorism seriously. Unlike World War II and the Korean War, when Congress actually cut non-defense discretionary spending by at least 20 percent, the Senate fattened the House appropriations bill from $27 billion to more than $31 billion. Where is the leadership in the Senate? These spendthrift politicians will end up saddling taxpayers with loads of new debt and taxation, while failing to make them safer from our enemies."

Based on the numbers in the Senate bill, it appears that the Senate is not actually $4 billion over the President's request, it is nearly $15 billion over the President's request. The bill replaces that money with unrelated and less important programs. In addition, the Senate bill requires President Bush to spend money on its earmarked projects before he can use the funds for defense. Schatz said, "the Senate is guilty of equating its pork with the funds needed for our fighting men and women on the front lines of the war on terrorism. This is one of the most dangerous examples of wasteful spending in many years."

These are just a few of the items the Senate is forcing on the President at the expense of defense and homeland security:

-- $16 million for New England fisheries; -- $10 million for Agricultural Research Service projects, including $4.5 million for animal pathogens and $500,000 each for plant pathogens and Newcastle disease; -- 5 million to drill five wells in Santa Fe, New Mexico; -- $5 million to subsidize farmers' markets and roadside produce stands in 31 states; -- $4 for the Columbia Hospital for Women Medical Center in Washington, DC (which closed in May, 2002) to support community outreach programs for women; -- $2.5 million to conduct coral reef mapping in Hawaii; and -- $2 million for the Smithsonian's National Worm Collection;

"These projects are obviously not vital to protect the nation, and are not appropriate for an emergency defense bill," Schatz said. "Once again, special interests will be coddled, taxpayers will be left to foot the bill, and national security will remain at risk. Every American should be grateful that the Office of Management and Budget has stated that President Bush's senior advisors will recommend that he veto this bill if it remains in its current form."

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.