Murtha brings shame to PA:
pet earmark project wastes $2 million
Rep. John Murtha's shamelessearmarking* ways have brought shame to his home state – specificallyCommunity College of Allegheny County (CCAC) and Carnegie Mellon University, both located in Pittsburgh.
According to an article in today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette [LINK], a two-million-dollar earmarked grant was initiated in 2003 through the Defense Department for a program to train people how to "safeguard America's businesses from threats to their computer systems and databases". The program fizzled:
Documents obtained from CCAC [Community College of Allegheny County, PA] under the federal Freedom of Information Act show the government invested in a plan to pilot and build a program for at least 1,000 students. The actual enrollment, about 70 over three years, hasn't come close.
Translation: two million taxpayers' dollars were spent and there is nothing to show for it. And that makes City College of San Francisco program director Suzanne Korey steaming mad:
At City College of San Francisco, program director Suzanne Korey fumes at the wasted time and taxpayer money.
Thousands of dollars of classroom computer equipment was purchased for her school and boxes of promotional material were ready. Faculty flew back and forth to Pittsburgh at federal expense so they could be trained at the Community College of Allegheny County for courses they would never teach.
Two million dollars of taxpayers' hard-earned money have been wasted. And who earmarked this pork barrel spending? The Post-Gazette article reports:
U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, a longtime supporter of SEI whose office was instrumental in securing the award.
Translation: pork barrel spender John Murtha, who sits as senior ranking member of the Defense Appropriations Committee, earmarked this $2 million to line the coffers back home.
Rep. Murtha's own spokesperson, Cindy Abrams, offered no apology whatsoever, as the Post Gazette article shows:
"Every once in a while, for whatever reason, a program does not get the result that the program's sponsor had hoped for," she [Cindy Abrams] said.
Murtha's constituents innocently suffer the shame his wasteful earmarks bring. And that should warrant an apology from their Congressman -- to the citizens of Pennsylvania and the United States taxpayers.
Rep. John Murtha is up for re-election this Nov. 7th. Let's hope the good folks of PA District 12 send a loud and clear message to this pork-barrel spender and vote him out of office.
Boot Murtha!
[from wikipedia:]
In the United States legislative budget process, Congress has the power to earmark (designate) funds it appropriates (revenue) to be spent on specific named projects. This differs from the normal practice where Congress grants a lump sum to an agency to allocate entirely at its discretion, according to the agency's internal budgeting process. Earmarks tie the hands of agency bureaucrats, obliging them to spend a portion of the budget on special projects chosen by politicians.
Politicians, like John Murtha, earmark large sums of money to be spent on the specific pet projects they name in the budget. And here's the real kicker:
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) notes that earmarks are often contained only in reports issued by House and Senate Appropriations Committees before formal debate begins in the House or the Senate, rather than appearing in the actual legislation itself. This makes earmarking a non-transparent process that is difficult to quantify.
So, earmarks are not included in the final legislation for the public's viewing eyes to see. They are kept hidden from the very eyes that pay for them.
