CAGW Reacts to Axing of Alaska Bridges
November 16 2005 - 5:50PM
PR Newswire (US)
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Citizens Against Government
Waste (CAGW) today cautiously applauded news that earmarks for two
bridges in Alaska could be removed from the conference version of
the fiscal 2006 transportation appropriations bill. Though the
final conference report has not been finalized, Sen. Ted Stevens'
(R-Alaska) office has told the Associated Press of a tentative
agreement that will eliminate the mandates that $229 million be
spent on "Don Young's Way" and $223 million be spent on the "Bridge
to Nowhere" linking Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents.
Alaska will still get the money as part of its allotment under the
federal highway formula, but the projects will have to compete with
the state's other transportation priorities. "Congress should
eliminate all the earmarks and cut the bloated highway bill by 10
percent or more," CAGW Vice President David Williams said.
"Projects should receive funding only through a competitive
process, not based on the whims of narcissistic members of
Congress." Signed into law in August, the Transportation Equity Act
(H.R. 3) authorizes spending $286.4 billion over the next six
years. The bill includes $24 billion for 6,500 pork-barrel
projects, amounting to 9 percent of total spending. In place of
spending $223 million on the "Bridge to Nowhere," the federal
government could buy every resident of Gravina Island a Lear jet.
Other projects in the highway bill include: $16 million for the
Briggs- Delaine-Pearson Connector (also referred to as a "Bridge to
Nowhere"), connecting two rural counties in South Carolina despite
the fact that another bridge already exists 10 miles down the
river; $2.75 million for the National Packard Museum in Warren,
Ohio; $2 million for construction of a parking lot at the
University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas; $1.6
million for completion of the American Tobacco Trail in North
Carolina; $600,000 for horse trails in Scott County, Va. Rep. Jeff
Flake (R-Ariz.) has introduced legislation (H.R. 4071) that would
allow states to disregard earmark instructions and spend federal
transportation funds as they see fit. It would also rescind 10
percent of funding in the bill for deficit reduction and to offset
hurricane recovery spending. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) proposed two
amendments to eliminate highway pork. The first amendment would
have rescinded funding for the two Alaska bridges and redirected
$125 million of the savings to hurricane recovery in the Gulf
Coast. The second amendment targeted $950,000 for a parking
facility for a private museum in Omaha, Nebraska, $500,000 for a
sculpture park in Seattle, Washington, and $200,000 for an animal
facility in Westerly, Rhode Island. The Senate rejected both
amendments to the Transportation, Treasury, HUD, Judiciary, and
District of Columbia Appropriations Act (H.R. 3058) by votes of 18
to 82 and 13 to 86. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) threatened to
resign from the Senate and declared that he would "be taken out of
here on a stretcher" if the amendment passed. "The elimination of
the Alaska bridge earmarks is a small victory for every taxpayer
who protested this ridiculous waste of their hard-earned money. Now
if Sen. Stevens would only follow through on his threat, Christmas
will come early for taxpayers," Williams concluded. Citizens
Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization
dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement, and abuse in
government. DATASOURCE: Citizens Against Government Waste CONTACT:
Daytime contact, Jessica Shoemaker, +1-202-467-5318, or After hours
contact, Tom Finnigan, +1-202-253-3852, both of Citizens Against
Government Waste Web site: http://www.cagw.org/
Copyright