Delay sneaks 1.5 billion worth of pork into Energy Bill

[Viking12]

(cross posted from E&E forum but deseves exposure here too)

Tom DeLay thinks the federal treasury is his personal piggy bank. DeLay slipped “a $1.5 billion giveaway to the oil industry, Halliburton, and Sugar Land, Texas” into the energy bill.

But this isn’t a normal case of government pork. DeLay has completely dispensed with the democratic process. From a letter Rep. Henry Waxman just sent Speaker Dennis Hastert:

The provision was inserted into the energy legislation after the conference was closed, so members of the conference committee had no opportunity to consider or reject this measure.

The $1.5 billion won’t be administered by the government by a private consortium in DeLay’s district:

The subtitle appears to steer the administration of 75% of the $1.5 billion fund to a private consortium located in the district of Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Ordinarily, a large fund like this would be administered directly by the government.

Hastert and DeLay need to explain themselves immediately. No member of Congress who takes taxpayer dollars seriously should vote for the energy bill until this matter is resolved.

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/07/27/delay-dirty-tricks

[GracieM]

1. Party of small government indeed

[DesEtoiles]

2. Call Delay's office-demand explanation: [phone]

[evolved Anarchopunk]

3. why did this post sink so fast ? is this cross-posted elsewhere? n/t

[Viking12]

4. More info and a kick...

WASHINGTON -- A top House Democrat is accusing GOP leaders of slipping a provision into a sprawling energy bill to give hundreds of millions of dollars to a private energy consortium in the suburban Houston hometown of House majority leader Tom DeLay -- a consortium that includes energy giant Halliburton Inc. as one of its most prominent members.

The final draft of the energy bill produced by House and Senate negotiators early Tuesday includes a 10-year, roughly $500 million research program for ''ultradeep drilling" of oil and gas from beneath the Gulf of Mexico.

The provision directs that 75 percent of that money be administered by a nonprofit ''corporation that is constructed as a consortium." Henry A. Waxman, the top Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, said the provision was worded to ensure that the contract will go to the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America, a nonprofit energy consortium based in Sugar Land, Texas, DeLay's hometown.

''At its essence, this provision is a . . . giveaway to the oil industry, Halliburton, and Sugar Land, Texas," Waxman, a California Democrat, wrote in a letter sent yesterday to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert. '' is an indefensible giveaway to one of the most profitable industries in America."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/07/28/deal_for_delay_district_added_to_energy_bill_democrat_says/

Waxman's letter:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/07/28/deal_for_delay_district_added_to_energy_bill_democrat_says/

[evolved Anarchopunk]

5. better un-bias link, thanks. how about a 3rd 'greatest' vote too, it looks

as if this story is being hotly debated at thinkprogress and elsewhere, where is DU, story has all the deplorable characters/methods of this admin. as well as possible ill effects to the environment.

Thanks again Viking12, I'll keep reading up...