By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
The House Majority is forcing debate today on the $410 billion Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 (H.R.1105). This massive spending bill is filled with pork, such as $7 million for the recovery of the Hawaiian sea turtle population, $545 million to overseas abortion providers and nearly one-half million for hybrid buses in Guam.
“If you thought that the passage of the ‘stimulus’ bill a week ago signaled a coming hiatus in wasteful spending projects and left-wing goodies being slipped into legislation, you were wrong,” said an Eagle Forum report by attorney Phyllis Schlafly.
The Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 (H.R.1105), which Schlafly refers to as “the stimulus bill’s little brother” will pour another $410 billion into pet pork projects. A consolidated version of nine unfinished appropriations bills from the previous congress, the House Majority is planning to force debate on the bill today.
“As we have seen in the five short weeks that this Congress has been in session, very little time is allotted to debate any bill and final votes are forced well before adequate analysis of the issues has taken place.”
Some of the spending includes:
• International Family Planning. $545 million, which will now flow to abortion providers since President Obama has overturned the Mexico City Policy.
• Health Care Rationing. $50 million, in addition to the $1.1 billion included in the “stimulus” to conduct “comparative effectiveness research” to evaluate the effectiveness of different preventative health interventions.
• Fairness Doctrine. Removes a provision that prohibits funds from being used to implement the so-called “fairness doctrine,” which aims to censor “conservative” media content.
• Census. $3.13 billion, in addition to the $1 billion provided in the “stimulus” for the 2010 Census, which the Obama Administration is attempting to monitor and control from the Executive Branch.
• ACORN. $181 million, for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation for housing counseling-the program that greatly contributed to the current mortgage meltdown.
• Obama Inauguration. $59 million which includes $20 million to reimburse State and local governments for inauguration expenses, and another $39 million for the District of Columbia to pay for the increased security.
• New West Wing/White House computers. $76 million.
Some of the more outrageous examples of pork spending include $5.8 million for the Edward M. Kennedity Institute for the Senate at the University of Massachusetts; $713,000 for “intelligent facades for high performance green buildings” in New York; $7 million for the recovery of the Hawaiian sea turtle population; $950,000 for a bike path in Wisconsin; and $475,000 for hybrid buses in Guam.
“Just one week after the largest spending bill in the history of the United States was passed, this liberal-controlled Congress is using the necessary appropriations bills – which are long past due and were supposed to be completed during 2008 – as vehicles to force sweeping national policy changes through America without public scrutiny and proper debate.”
The Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 can be viewed in its entirely at this website: http://www.gop.gov/bill/111/1/hr1105
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