Pelosi Offers To Nix Pet Projects To Help Pay For Katrina

[JABBS]

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said yesterday that she would return to the federal Treasury $70 million designated for San Francisco projects to help pay for Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts.

"I would give them up to help Katrina victims," she told the San Francisco Chronicle. "The people of San Francisco would be very proud of that.''

The federal cost for Katrina recovery has been estimated at $200 billion. To help pay the cost, some have targeted the $286.4 billion transportation bill, passed in July, which contains about $24 billion in "earmarks'' for individual members' projects -- assailed as pork barrel spending at its worst.

Most of the bill's money is distributed to states according to funding formulas for highways, bridges and mass transit. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's suburban Houston district is slated to get $64.4 million under the bill, and DeLay (R-TX) has said that he brought home an additional $50 million for freeway projects in the metropolitan area. He also helped secure $324 million in funding credits for Houston's light rail construction.

Pelosi's district received $129 million from the legislation. Pelosi would return money for all projects, with the exception of $59 million for the Golden Gate Bridge earthquake retrofit project, which she termed vital for national security and public safety.

***

Commenting on Pelosi's thoughts, DeLay told reporters "I'll take a look'' at returning the members' individual transportation projects to pay for Katrina. But reporters suggested he sounded unenthusiastic.

"My earmarks are pretty important to that region,'' the Republican leader said, defending the money heading to his district. "The bill creates hundreds of thousands of jobs. It's an economic engine.''

***

In spite of DeLay's lackluster response, the idea of trimming pork to pay for Katrina has had bipartisan support.

As reported by JABBS, numerous anti-waste groups are on board with the idea. And Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) suggested earlier this month: "In the past year Congress has found a way to fund thousands of projects of questionable merit. Perhaps a few of those dollars could have been better spent on activities that might have limited the impact of this tragedy."

As House Majority Leader, it's up to DeLay to do the right thing? Or will he continue to offer the empty spin that there's no fat left to cut in the budget?

***

This article first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.

[marbuc]

1. "hundreds of thousands of jobs?"

are you sure about that Tom?

[Inland]

2. Delay already nixes idea of giving up his pork projects.

Before the list was made public, Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the House majority leader, declared that delaying the Medicare plan was a nonstarter. Mr. DeLay also expressed skepticism that most lawmakers would want to revisit the transportation bill, saying he would be reluctant to sacrifice the projects that he won for his district in the Houston area.

"My earmarks are pretty important to building an economy in that region," Mr. DeLay said of the local projects he backed in the bill. A watchdog group said those items totaled more than $114 million.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/national/nationalspecial/21cnd-congress.html?hp&ex=1127361600&en=eb29d82e727000ab&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Carla in Ca]

3. Bozeman, MT giving back 4 million

WASHINGTON -- In any case it won't die: the idea that Alaska, to help Hurricane Katrina victims, should forfeit the dough it got in the federal highway bill for the Knik and Gravina bridges.


The New York Times: "Surely Rep. Don Young, the Alaska Republican who is chairman of the transportation committee, might put off that $223 million 'bridge to nowhere' in his state's outback. It's redundant now -- Louisiana suddenly has several bridges to nowhere."

The Wall Street Journal: "That same half a billion dollars (for the two Alaska bridges) could rebuild thousands of homes for suffering New Orleans evacuees."

No doubt to make Alaskans look bad, city leaders in Bozeman, Mont., are investigating whether they can give Katrina victims the $4 million they got in the federal bill for a downtown parking garage.

MORE
<http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/6988027p-6889112c.html>

[Tom Joad]

4. yay, Pelosi. Now just nix the war funding!

That, unfortunately is a pet project Pelosi won't touch. Or work with Barbara Lee, Woolsey and others to bring the troops home.

wish it were not so. That is just the way it is. And we have to do something about that.

[MrTriumph]

5. Hurray for Pelosi! Put the R's on the spot!

And demand they give up funding for Republican pork!

This could be a great issue for Democrats. Oh, it involves confrontation? Guess that's a little tough for most Democrats in the house.

Suggestion:

Say, Nancy, how about starting a "Peoples' Filibuster". Get your Dem.s out on the steps of the capitol and start reading off the list of Republican pork and don't stop until the house meets to cut the pork. If it lasts until Christmas, at least the American people will know where we stand.