Posted on 12/17/2012 4:25:31 PM PST by Libloather
Conservatives complain Sandy bill includes millions in unrelated spending
By Erik Wasson and Kevin Bogardus - 12/17/12 12:33 PM ET
Conservative groups say the Senate’s $60.4 billion Hurricane Sandy supplemental bill is loaded with millions of dollars in spending unrelated to damage from the devastating storm.
The bill includes $2 million to fix museum roofs in Washington, D.C.; $100 million for Head Start centers; $348 million for damage to parks, including the Statue of Liberty’s island; and $4 million to repair the Kennedy Space Center and other launch sites. It also includes funding for commercial fisheries disasters for as far away as American Samoa.
The Club for Growth announced Monday that it would score a vote for the bill negatively because of the unrelated spending.
"When a natural disaster occurs, there is a textbook response by Congress — they cobble together an overpriced bill that isn't paid for, there's no accountability or oversight, and it's filled with pork. This proposal is no different," the group said in an alert announcing its decision.
The Club called on senators to strip out unnecessary items and fully offset the rest of the package with spending cuts.
Heritage Action for America, a conservative advocacy group, on Monday announced it is also scoring the vote on the Sandy bill.
"While Hurricane Sandy was a major disaster, the majority of the funds being requested are being spent beyond FY 2014, and much of the funding goes toward superfluous programs that have no direct relation to Hurricane Sandy," it said.
The White House on Monday formally backed the legislation, which closely mirrors President Obama's request for disaster aid.
A statement says the bill "ensures that funds are invested wisely to improve communities' long-term resilience and protect against waste, fraud and abuse." It urges Congress to pass the bill without spending offsets. The Senate begun debate on the measure Monday.
Heritage Action points out that the Senate bill contains $150 million for fishery disasters but the language could allow money to be spent far from the Sandy impact zone in places like American Samoa, which is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Matt Mayer of Heritage said that once unnecessary spending is removed, only $12.8 billion in the funding bill would need to be spent now.
He argued that $3 billion in the bill to repair or replace federal equipment or facilities should be made part of the regular appropriations process. The bill replaces vehicles for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency, port scanners and other equipment damaged by Hurricane Sandy.
Mayer says $28 billion in future storm prevention should also be left for later. Supporters of including mitigation spending say that planning for huge infrastructure projects needs firm funding commitments months in advance.
Steve Ellis, vice president for Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group, said the Senate version of the relief package lowered the bar for Army Corps of Engineers projects to receive government funding. He also noted increased funding for Amtrak in the legislation.
“People are still hurting here, and, yes, they do need help,” Ellis said. “But the more extraneous things that get tacked on, the more it becomes a gravy train for miscellaneous projects rather than a true relief bill.”
Taxpayers for Common Sense released a more detailed analysis of the bill on Monday. It points out that the bill spends $20,000 to buy a new car for the Department of Justice inspector general, allows the government to rebuild or relocate flood-prone state facilities in 30 states, has $821 million for dredging projects nationwide and allows loan cancellations for Hurricane Katrina-related loans.
Lobbyists pushing for the relief package are also worried extraneous items could derail the bill.
“We do not want to have a long shopping list,” said Tony Pratt, vice president of the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association.
Pratt, who is also the administrator of shoreline and waterway management for the state of Delaware, said he would like the bill to help direct recovery efforts as well as finance coastal towns’ preparation to reduce damage from future storms.
“There's a concern that things can get tacked on that are not directly related,” Pratt said. “As long as they fall into those two categories — which is repair and building toward resilient communities — I think the comfort level will be pretty high.”
The House Appropriations Committee is continuing to investigate the items in the Senate bill and does not yet know when its work will be completed, Jennifer Hing, a spokeswoman for Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said Monday.
If the Senate passes its bill, the next step would be to go to a conference committee with the House. The Senate legislation is attached to a military construction and Veterans Affairs bill that has already passed the House.
what spending problem?
Utterly without shame.
This is the kind of thinking that just leaves me cold. NJ has the highest property taxes in the US, yet when the rich who own homes on the shore get slammed with a storm, why are they asking me to pay for it? I don’t recall them asking me to spend a week in their home. If you live there, you know you’re going to get hit with a storm at some point in time. Instead of frittering away all that tax money, both property and income, on buying votes to get reelected, why not escrow some of it for the next storm you know is coming. Same for the people in New Orleans. If you build a house 8’ below sea level and the levy breaks, how is that my problem? Surely you knew that chance existed, so buy insurance against it. Insurance too expensive? Then buy a house somewhere above sea level. Like all of Obozo’s other economic policies, this is another one to redistribute income, only this time its from people who take and provide for prudent risk to those who don’t. I realize you’ve had a hard time, but I don’t know why you expect everyone else to restore your private property...unless it comes with an all expenses paid week’s vacation at your place.
536 folks in DC need to be replaced. NOW
FMCDH(BITS)
FMCDH(BITS)
I think this is payment to Nancy Pelosi’s huasband.
Not everyone on the barrier islands are rich. There are an awful amount to tradespeople living there. I owned a home in the Dover twp section and I'm certainly not rich.
While it's true for some people this is a second house the majority of the residents live there year year round.
Politicians stand on the bodies of the dying and the graves of the dead to pick our pockets.
They never miss a chance to lie, cheat, steal and redistribute the hard earned earnings of the shrinking number of Americans who actually work to support themselves and their families.
That is what gets them elected and what keeps them in office.
This is the whole problem with our corrupt congress. They can’t pass a bill with just the problem in mind. There has to be goodies in it for everyone they need to sign on and support the bill.
This is the whole problem with our corrupt congress. They can’t pass a bill with just the problem in mind. There has to be goodies in it for everyone they need to sign on and support the bill.
Speaker Pelosi's husband Paul, it turns out, owns something to the order of $17 million in Del Monte stock!
No taxpayer money at all should go to private homeowners or businesses.
Tht includes money spent on ‘public’ projects where the real purpose is to restore value to a private property or a business.
That is what insurance is for.
No insurance?
Then you will have learned an expensive lesson.
Not a penny.
What’s the political downside for the GOP in refusing to support this blue-state pork?
BIG GOVERNMENT IS CRONY SOCIALISM
What say you, Mr. Bastiat? “Socialism Is Legal Plunder”
DEFUND socialist collectives, foreign and domestic.
DEPOPULATE socialists from the body politic.
Anything to add, sir?
“Above all, if you wish to be strong, begin by rooting out every particle of socialism that may have crept into your legislation. This will be no light task.”
live - free - republic
Great sentence in a thread of great posts. Thanks Iron Munro.
Socialism/Totalitarianism 2.0. Plunder & death.
>”Politicians stand on the bodies of the dying and the graves of the dead to pick our pockets”<
Add, “and steal our Freedom”.
Very appropriate this week. They are up to their chins in the blood of innocents.
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