When the U.S. Senate approved a spending measure to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on Thursday, public attention focused on the attached timetable for troop withdrawal and the impending congressional confrontation with President Bush over Iraq policy.
One little-noticed casualty in the Senate's final version of the bill was a $2 million "earmark" for the University of Vermont that had been added by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., but was removed before passage. The money was to have funded a new institute at UVM, named for former Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords and focusing on early child-education policy research.
Earmarks are congressional appropriations designated for specific purposes. They are often added to appropriation bills by members of Congress to benefit programs in their own states.
The main spending in the Senate bill was more than $90 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Domestic spending totaling more than $20 billion included farm and hurricane-victim relief. The Senate withdrew the $2 million earmark for UVM on a motion by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., whose Senate Web site portrays him as a watchdog over "pork-barrel" spending.
UVM, like many other state universities, has received earmarked funds in the past for an array of projects.
This year, though, is proving tough for earmarks -- not just for UVM, but for other universities around the country. "Nobody is getting any," said Karen Meyer, UVM's vice president for state and federal relations.
From fiscal year 2002 through 2006, Meyer said, UVM received about $35 million in earmarked funds for programs that included research on Lake Champlain, childhood obesity, stormwater and maple trees. The Vermont Center for Emerging Technology and the Center for Rural Studies also received earmarked money, as did a hydrogen biofuels project and UVM's National University Transportation Center, for which Jeffords helped procure the funds.
Vermont State Colleges have received nearly $9 million in earmarks since 2002, according to Karen Nevin, executive assistant to the chancellor, including funds for the Stafford Center and a science-math renovation project at Castleton State College.
Meyer said UVM still plans to carry through with plans for the Jeffords Institute, which would be housed in the College of Education and Social Services. Leahy expects to try again.
"Senator Leahy has agreed to work again on that later this year, in the regular appropriations process," said David Carle, a spokesman for Leahy. A $3 million measure for the same UVM institute was in an appropriation bill last year that died, Carle said.
The institute's purpose is in keeping with Jeffords' work in Congress, where he gave high priority to strengthening the nation's education system and increasing opportunities for people with disabilities.
The institute's major initial focus, according to a statement provided by UVM, "will include collaboration with and preparation of teachers, administrators and policy makers in the development and implementation of programs, policies, and practices that lead to positive, demonstrable outcomes in education and policy practices."
As for the institute, Jeffords said in a telephone interview: "I'm looking forward to it. Not all the design work on it is done, but it looks very positive."
Last year, UVM named Jeffords a James Marsh visiting professor. Jeffords said he expected to come to the campus soon to begin work.
