The President Now Challenges Congress to Put Up or Shut Up 

(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today applauded President Bush for withholding $5.1 billion in emergency spending included in the anti-terror supplemental bill.  President Bush announced his decision to withhold the money at an economic forum in Waco, Texas, saying Congress had irresponsibly loaded the anti-terrorism bill with projects unrelated to national security.

“President Bush is making good on his threats to reign in Congressional overspending,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “In a time of war and recession, Congress continues to treat the national treasury like a trillion-dollar cookie jar.  The President is now the country’s last line of defense against budget deficits and prolonged stagnation caused by an out-of-control Congress.” 

The $28.6 billion anti-terror spending package signed by Bush gave him the option of approving all or none of a $5.1 billion chunk.  In a stern warning to Congress, President Bush said fiscal restraint is essential to economic growth.

“The President is right to affirm the indispensability of budget discipline to economic recovery,” continued Schatz. “It’s unfortunate the President couldn’t go further, because the supplemental contains well over $5.1 billion in wasteful spending.”    

CAGW found the following pork barrel projects in the fiscal 2002 anti-terror supplemental:

• $11 million for economic assistance to New England fisheries;
• $6 million for plant and cattle genome sequencing;
• $3 million for the drilling of wells in Santa Fe, New Mexico;
• $2 million for an alcohol storage facility to house the Smithsonian’s worm collection;
• A mobile animal slaughter processing unit for the Monterey County, California Economic Development Agency.

“Despite ongoing economic woes making life harder for millions of people, Congress views the costs of war and homeland defense as an excuse to launder tax money to favored constituencies before the next election,” concluded Schatz. “Congressional leadership on this issue is nowhere to be found.  In particular, Senate Democrats are larding out pork to threatened incumbents at record levels.  We hope that the President’s firm stand on the supplemental is just practice for using his full veto power on over-stuffed appropriations this fall.”

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