For Immediate Release                                      Contact: Leslie K. Paige 202-467-5334 
September 15, 2009

Pork Alert:  Senate Transportation

(Washington, D.C.) - Citizens Against Government Waste today released its preliminary analysis of the Senate version of the fiscal year 2010 Department of Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations Act.  In total, there are 588 projects worth $1.7 billion.  This represents a 2.2 percent decrease in the number of projects, but a 46.7 percent increase in their cost, over the fiscal year 2009 THUD spending bill, which included 601 projects totaling $906.2 million.  Senate THUD Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) has 53 projects worth $185.4 million, and Senate THUD Subcommittee Ranking Member Kit Bond (R-Mo.) took home 21 projects worth $30.5 million.  Their combined dollar total accounts for 12.7 percent of the funding in the bill.

The following are examples of some of the pork that was added to the bill:

• $200,000,000 by Senate THUD Appropriations Subcommittee member Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) for the New Jersey Trans-Hudson Midtown Corridor (ARC/THE Tunnel).    
  
• $180,000,000 by Senate THUD Appropriations Subcommittee member Robert Bennett (R-Utah) for two rail projects:  $100,000,000 requested in conjunction with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) for the Mid-Jordan light rail transportation (LRT) project and $80,000,000 for the Weber County to Salt Lake City Commuter Rail.
  
• $150,000,000 by Senate THUD Appropriations Subcommittee member Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) for two LRT projects:  $75,000,000 for the Houston North Corridor LRT and $75,000,000 for the Houston Southeast Corridor LRT.
  
• $1,500,000 for bicycle paths:  $1,000,000 by Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) for the Regional East-West trail and bikeway and $500,000 by Senate THUD Appropriations Subcommittee member Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) for enhancements to the Sue Ann Big Crow and Oglala trail and bike paths on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.  
  
• $500,000 by Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) for construction of a beach park promenade in Pascagoula.  The population of Pascagoula in 2008 was 23,609; if each resident of the town paid $21.18 toward the beach park promenade, federal taxpayers, most of whom are unlikely ever to visit, would be off the hook.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.

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