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Floor Statement McCain Urges Restraint in Pork Barrel Spending for Treasury Appropriations Bill for FY'02
September 26, 2001
WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator John McCain entered the following statement into the Congressional Record regarding the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Bill, H.R. 2590, for FY02:"Mr. President, I want to thank the managers of this bill for their hard work in putting forth this legislation which provides federal funding for numerous vital programs in the Treasury Department and the General Government. However, once again, I find myself in the unpleasant position of speaking before my colleagues about parochial projects in another appropriations bill.
"This bill spends at a level 5.9 percent higher than the level enacted in fiscal year 2001, which is greater than the 4 percent increase in discretionary spending than the President wanted to adhere to.
"In real dollars, this is $328 million in additional spending above the amount requested by the President and a $1.8 billion increase in spending from last year. So far this year, with just seven appropriations bills already passed including this bill, spending levels have already exceeded the President's budget request by more than $7.6 billion. I must remind my colleagues that the Administration has urged us to maintain our fiscal discipline to ensure that we will continue to have adequate funds to prosecute our war against terrorism, to aid those in need, and to cover other related costs.
"In this bill, I have identified just over $200 million in earmarks, which is less than the cost of the earmarks, totaling $356 million, in the bill passed last year. Therefore, I applaud the efforts of the appropriators in keeping parochial .spending to a minimum in this bill but more must be done.
"While the amounts associated with each individual earmark may not seem extravagant, taken together, they represent a serious diversion of taxpayers' hard-earned dollars at the expense of numerous programs that have undergone the appropriate merit-based selection process. It is my view that the people who run these programs should be the ones who decide how best to spend the appropriated funds. After all, they know what their most pressing needs are.
"For example, under funding for the Department of Treasury, some examples of earmarks include:
* $1,000,000 for work on joint technology projects with New Mexico State University's Physical Sciences Laboratory; and
* $750,000 for the Center for Agriculture Policy and Trade Studies located at North Dakota
State University.
"Under funding for the General Government, some of the earmarks include:
* $2,500,000 for the Native American Digital Telehealth Project and the Upper Great Plains Native American Telehealth Program at the University of North Dakota; and
* $5,000,000 to help purchase land and facilitate the moving of the Odd Fellows Hall to provide for construction of a new courthouse in Salt Lake City, Utah.
"There are more projects on the list that I have compiled, which will be available on my Senate Web site.
"In closing, I urge my colleagues to curb our habit of directing hard-earned taxpayer dollars to locality-specific special interests."
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