Washington, D.C. – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today blasted the Senate for adding special interest spending to the emergency war supplemental bill.  Scheduled for markup today, the Senate Appropriations Committee bill totals $121.5 billion – $18.5 billion more than the president requested for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and disaster relief.  Like the House version, the Senate bill is packed with spending items unrelated to overseas military operations. 

“Funding for sugar beets and sugar cane has no place in an emergency bill, especially with the Farm Bill coming up later in the year,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “The Senate has matched the House’s insatiable appetite for pork while satisfying their sweet tooth.” 

Below is a list of the most egregious special-interest goodies in the supplemental.  An expanded list can be found at www.cagw.org.

• $425 million for education grants for rural areas;
• $388.9 million for a backlog of Department of Transportation projects;
• $165.9 million (including $60.4 million for salmon fisheries in the Klamath Basin region) for fisheries disaster relief;
• $48 million in disaster construction money for NASA;
• $25 million for asbestos abatement at the Capitol Power Plant;
• $24 million to sugar beet producers;
• $20 million for reimbursements to Nevada for “insect damage;”
• $3.5 million for guided tours of the Capitol;
• $3 million for sugar cane; and
• Allows the transfer of funds from holiday ornament sales in the Senate gift shop.

Emergency spending is basically a giant loophole.  The costs of supplemental bills are not counted in official annual budget figures, but still get added to the national debt.  The projects and programs slipped into supplementals often would not pass muster in the regular budget process.  Presidents are historically reluctant to veto funding meant for the troops, which makes such bills a magnet for pork; President Bush has threatened to veto this year’s bill.

“Emergency spending bills are often called Christmas trees for the plentiful gifts that are tucked in for lawmakers and special interests, but this is the first with holiday ornaments already included.  Taxpayers must play the Grinch and stop Congress from celebrating Christmas in March,” Schatz concluded.

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