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Danny Boy delivering the pork!
While most politicians in Washington are running as fast as they can from earmarks, Congressman Boren doesn’t seem to have gotten the message yet. We’re all for the military and troop preparedness, but is this $35 million dollars in spending really justified?
• $15 million for the Excalibur extended-range artillery projectile. Excalibur is the Army’s only close-fight precision artillery projectile. The McAlester Army Ammunition Plant will be utilized in loading a portion of these shells.
• $8.5 million for Ground Warfare Acoustical Combat System (GWACS) development. GWACS is a small arms and light weapons detection system.
• $6 million for the construction of connecting rail at McAAP. The new rail will connect the existing rail at the 38AT Magazine Group to the existing rail at the Ashland Depot to allow for expedited movement of munitions.
• $4 million for the procurement of ammunition peculiar equipment (APE) out-loading equipment at the McAlester Defense Ammunition Center (DAC), allowing ammunition to be moved more efficiently.
• $1.5 million for power conversion equipment to be used in the research and development of power generation technologies for future naval vessels, including the U.S. Nave DDG-1000 Destroyer Program and the CG(X) Cruiser Program.
“Somewhere along the way, something changed. Nobody knows for sure who did what.”- Sen. Tom Coburn
From ABC News:
Someone – before Congress mandated that earmarks enacted into law be made public, so we’re not sure who – someone changed language in the conference report to the 2006 transportation bill that redirected $10 million that had been designated to widen parts of I-75 to instead create the off-ramp.
Problem is the residents of Lee County in Naples, Florida didn’t want the off-ramp. The local government didn’t want the off-ramp and the local Congressman, Republican Connie Mack, says he didn’t request the off-ramp.
It was requested by a local business man – conveniently a political patron of Rep. Don Young, the powerful Alaska Republican that tried so hard to bring you the “Bridge to Nowhere” boondoggle that same year, and the lawmaker who wrote the bill.
Young has not directly admitted requesting the earmark, and despite Mack maintaining he didn’t request it either, offering he even worked to have the earmark reversed, there exists a letter from 2006 indicating Mack supported an off-ramp in that location.
Lawmakers put 6,300 earmarks worth $24 billion into what was ultimately signed by President George W. Bush. But only Coconut Road is still causing problems on Capitol Hill.
Republican anti-earmark crusader Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla, wants to appoint a bipartisan, bicameral panel with subpoena power to investigate the matter and he’s holding up action on the Senate floor demanding a vote on the proposal.
Senators have spent all week considering a “technical corrections” to the 2005 transportation bill. “Technical corrections” are supposed to dot i’s and cross t’s overlooked when the bill was originally passed, but Coburn says there should be a full accounting of the taxpayer money that was overlooked too.
By Susan Crabtree
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is threatening to withhold support for legislation making technical corrections to the 2005 highway bill if it does not require a “full and open” investigation into the now-notorious Coconut Road earmark.
Coburn wrote a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Tuesday informing him that he would object to any effort to “hotline” the technical corrections bill if it did not include language calling for the appointment of a select committee to probe an unorthodox change to an earmark made after both chambers passed the highway bill but before it reached President Bush’s desk. Read more…
Related:
Foxnews.com: Controversial Earmark From Two Years Ago Rears Its Head Again in Congress
Redstate.com: The GOP Should Stand Behind Senator Tom Coburn