Wehrwolfen
Senior Member
- May 22, 2012
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Hurricane Sandy relief turning into Porkfest 2012
Ed Morrissey
12/19/2012
Mary Katharine Ham wrote last week about the porkfest in the Senate bill authorizing emergency relief spending for Hurricane Sandy, but the Senate hasnt gotten the message yet. David Francis reports on more aspects of the larded-up bill for The Fiscal Times, while noting that this has become business as usual on Capitol Hill especially while the normal budgeting process has been derailed:
The Sandy emergency spending package also contains provisions that had previously been rejected or had not yet been considered by Congress. This includes a measure that alters how the federal government manages areas prone to flooding, a bill that was rejected by the House earlier this year. Also included is the Disaster Recovery Act of 2012, a bill that had yet to be considered by a Senate committee.
But Ellis said the pork contained in the Sandy emergency bill were modest compared to past bills. The 2007 Iraq supplemental spending package contained $21 billion in unrelated domestic spending, including $283 for the Milk Income Loss Contract Program and $400 million for rural schools. In 2000, an $11.2 billion spending plan for disaster relief in Kosovo and Columbia included $45 million to pay for a private jet for the commandant of the Coast Guard.
According to Ellis, these pet projects are part of the horse-trading involved in the political process: in order to gain broad support, priorities eliminated during the regular budget process are included in emergency spending bills. Craig Jennings, manager of federal spending and contracting policy at OMB Watch, said this is a symptom of a broken appropriations process.
This is how Congress tries to get in their priorities. Ideally you want this all done through regular order and the normal appropriations process, Jennings said. There is no regular order anymore. Weve been jumping from a debt ceiling crisis to government shutdown crisis to whatever crisis comes next. However its supposed to work isnt working. Jennings said partisan gridlock makes returning to a normal appropriations process impossible.
Read more:
Hurricane Sandy relief turning into Porkfest 2012 « Hot Air
Ed Morrissey
12/19/2012
Mary Katharine Ham wrote last week about the porkfest in the Senate bill authorizing emergency relief spending for Hurricane Sandy, but the Senate hasnt gotten the message yet. David Francis reports on more aspects of the larded-up bill for The Fiscal Times, while noting that this has become business as usual on Capitol Hill especially while the normal budgeting process has been derailed:
The Sandy emergency spending package also contains provisions that had previously been rejected or had not yet been considered by Congress. This includes a measure that alters how the federal government manages areas prone to flooding, a bill that was rejected by the House earlier this year. Also included is the Disaster Recovery Act of 2012, a bill that had yet to be considered by a Senate committee.
But Ellis said the pork contained in the Sandy emergency bill were modest compared to past bills. The 2007 Iraq supplemental spending package contained $21 billion in unrelated domestic spending, including $283 for the Milk Income Loss Contract Program and $400 million for rural schools. In 2000, an $11.2 billion spending plan for disaster relief in Kosovo and Columbia included $45 million to pay for a private jet for the commandant of the Coast Guard.
According to Ellis, these pet projects are part of the horse-trading involved in the political process: in order to gain broad support, priorities eliminated during the regular budget process are included in emergency spending bills. Craig Jennings, manager of federal spending and contracting policy at OMB Watch, said this is a symptom of a broken appropriations process.
This is how Congress tries to get in their priorities. Ideally you want this all done through regular order and the normal appropriations process, Jennings said. There is no regular order anymore. Weve been jumping from a debt ceiling crisis to government shutdown crisis to whatever crisis comes next. However its supposed to work isnt working. Jennings said partisan gridlock makes returning to a normal appropriations process impossible.
Read more:
Hurricane Sandy relief turning into Porkfest 2012 « Hot Air
