“Congress has spent lavishly in Emergency Supplemental,” Schatz says.

(Washington, D.C.)  Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) chastised Congress for its wasteful behavior in passing the fiscal 2004 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act.   The bill, signed into law today, included extraneous spending provisions in the fiscal 2003 emergency supplemental portion, which Congress chose to attach to the Legislative Branch bill rather than debate it as a separate spending bill.

“Taxpayers should be outraged that Congress did not consider the President’s emergency spending requests for disaster relief as a separate bill to be debated and voted on under its own merits,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “By tacking it on to the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill, it was easier to hide pork-barrel projects, and harder for fiscally responsible Members of Congress to object to the entire bill.  Moreover, appropriators knew that the President would not veto a bill that funded the legislative branch and emergency spending, despite the added pork.”

In July, President Bush submitted a request for $1.9 billion in emergency funding to help cover forest fires, flooding and other natural disasters, unanticipated costs with Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, and homeland security.  Congress took no action as several members wanted funding for other programs, such as AmeriCorps, to be included.  The President then submitted a request for $32.2 million in supplemental funding for the judicial branch on September 12.  Congress rolled the President’s two requests into the fiscal 2004 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act.  The following projects were added to the fiscal 2003 emergency supplemental section:

• $20 million to fight Mormon cricket infestation in Idaho, Nevada, and Utah;
• $9.7 million for a tree assistance program to compensate eligible orchardists for tree losses incurred since January 1, 2000, in Michigan;
• $1 million for the Southern Illinois University for the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute;
• $1 million for the Geisinger Health System to establish centers for excellence for the treatment of autism in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania;
• $500,000 for the Ohio Alliance Community Center for the Deaf in Worthington, Ohio;
• $200,000 for the Pittsburgh Mercy Health System in Pennsylvania; and
• $200,000 for the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine for minority outreach for oral health in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“None of these projects constitute an emergency and deserve funding at this time,” Schatz concluded.  “We are a day away from the start of the new fiscal year, and if these projects were truly important, they should have been considered through the normal process for the fiscal 2004 budget.  Facing a $480 billion deficit, Congress needs stop feeding at the trough and be more fiscally responsible.”

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.