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(Washington, D.C.) — It’s been three months since the start of fiscal 2004, and what a surprise, Congress has yet to finish the appropriations process. Though they have missed their appropriations deadline and are faced with a $500 billion deficit, members are finding the time to pile on the pork. In fact, they just introduced the Consolidated Appropriations Act for fiscal 2004 (H.R. 2673), which consists of seven of the thirteen spending bills. Members often use omnibus bills as a mechanism to get copious amounts of pork, and this one is proving to be no different. The 1,448-page bill totals $820 billion and is stuffed to the brim with parochial projects. Here are some examples of the pork in H.R. 2673:
-$18,500,000 added by the House for the International Fund for Ireland;
-$1,000,000 added by the House for the Alabama Supercomputer Education Outreach Program;
-$725,000 added in conference for the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, Pa.;
-$400,000 added in conference for the New York Botanical Garden’s Virtual Herbarium project in the Bronx;
-$387,000 added in conference for the Whittier Public Library Children’s Area and History Room in the City of
Whittier, Calif.;
-$250,000 added in conference for the Cleveland Health Museum in Ohio for exhibits;
-$200,000 added in conference for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland for the
Rockin’ the Schools education program;
-$200,000 added in conference for the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh for exhibit and
curriculum development for the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh
Regional History Center;
-$50,000 added in conference for the Alaska Moving Image Preservation Association in Anchorage to
digitize files/photos/videos of Alaskan history; and
-$50,000 added in conference for the Imaginarium Science Center in Anchorage to develop science
exhibits and distance discovery modules.
CAGW will provide continuing updates on pork in the omnibus spending bill. For more information, please visit: http://councilfor.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=policy_porkbarrelreport.
Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.
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