Pork Alert:  Agriculture Appropriations Bill 

(Washington, D.C.) - On June 8, 2005, the House passed the fiscal 2006 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (H.R. 2744).  The bill contained $17 billion worth of discretionary spending, $98 million more than the president’s request.  House appropriators went hog wild with parochial projects, showing that members are once again more concerned with bringing home the bacon than balancing the budget.  The Senate Appropriations Committee will consider its version of the bill tomorrow afternoon.  Examples of pork from the House bill include:

$ 6.5 million for wood utilization research (Ore., N.C., Miss., Minn., Maine, Mich., Idaho, Tenn., Alaska, W.Va.).  Since 1985, $86 million has been sapped from the taxpayers for this research;

$1.9 million for projects in Ames in the district of House Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee member Tom Latham (R-Iowa):  $1.8 million for Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) research, and $100,000 for corn rootworm research;

$1,056,000 for projects in the district of House Committee on Agriculture member Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.): $800,000 for food safety research in Athens, and $256,000 for integrated fruit and vegetable research at his alma mater, the University of Georgia;

$700,000 for projects in the district of House Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee Vice-Chair Ray LaHood (R-Ill.):  $500,000 to develop technologies to produce biofuels and coproducts from agricultural commodities, and $200,000 for expanded research to control the Asian longhorned beetle and Emerald Ash borer;

$475,000 for projects in the state of House appropriator Steny Hoyer (D-Md.):  $400,000 for expanded research in dietary intake, nutrient content, and obesity issues, and $75,000 for alternative crop research development for coffee and cocoa at the Agricultural Research Laboratories; and

$350,000 for research on emerging viruses of sugarbeet and vegetable production in the district of House Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee member Sam Farr (D-Calif.).

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