Miss Piggy - Sheil Jackson Lee

FOLKS, IT'S GETTING STUPID

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Sheila Jackson Lee's earmark requests for FY2009

Sheila Jackson Lee has disclosed her earmark requests for 2009.

The deadline has passed for House members to submit their requests for earmark projects for fiscal year 2009.

We'll post the requests by the Houston delegation as we receive them. Here they are for Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston:

Subcommittee on Agriculture:
• $352,500 for Houston Zoo for Improved Quarantine Management Program
• $500,000 for Texas A&M University for North Harris County flood control
• $2,000,000 for Texas A&M University to reduce the threat of mosquito-borne diseases

Subcommittee on Commerce, Science, Justice
• $500,000 for Upstart Productions for All Kids Count Program
• $2,000,000 for Texas Medical Center for emergency communications and mobility center
• $4,000,000 for Kids Peace Texas foster care and family services program
• $224,420 for Harris County Constable's Department, Precinct Seven for gang task force
• $2,000,000 for Thurgood Marshall College Fund for Minority Science Initiative: NASA
• $300,000 for Harris County Constable's Department, Precinct Seven for tracking sex offenders

Subcommittee on Defense:
• $1,000,000 for Riverside General Hospital for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder
• $1,000,000 for the Center for Research on Minority Health for Asian American Needs Assessment
• $1,000,000 for the Center for Research on Minority Health for Prostate Cancer Outreach Project
• $5,000,000 for the Thurgood Marshall College Fund for the Defense Leadership and Technology Initiative
• $2,000,000 for the Taylor Foundation for Sickle Cell Research for funding for Sickle Cell research at Texas Children's Hospital
• $5,000,000 for the Thurgood Marshall College Fund for the Security Clearance Compliant Recruitment Program Initiative

Subcommittee on Energy and Water:
• $2,000,000 for University of Houston for Center for Clean Fuels and Power Generation
• $750,000 for Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, Life Flight Operations Center
• $66,700,000 for the Port of Houston for the Houston-Galveston Navigation Channels Project
• $15,000,000 for University of Houston for National Wind Energy Center
• $2,000,000 for The Thurgood Marshall College Fund for the Minority Science Initiative: Department of Energy
• $1,000,000 for Texas AgriLife Extension Service for Trinity Basin Environmental Restoration Reconnaissance Study

Subcommittee on Homeland Security:
• $500,000 for City of Houston for Houston Emergency Preparedness and Outreach for Special Needs Populations
• $15,000,000 for L.L. Clarkson, Clarkson Aerospace for DHS Minority Leaders Program

Subcommittee on Interior and the Environment:
• $1,500,000 for Freedman's Town and Bethel Missionary Baptist Church Restoration
• $2,000,000 for the Julia Ideson Public Library
• $2,500,000 for Texas Medical Center for Mickey Leland National Air Toxics Research Center
• $5,000,000 for City of Houston, Public Utilities Division for Federal Funding of Awwa Research Foundation
• $1,000,000 for Buffalo Soldiers National Museum for Purchase and Renovation of Historic Houston Light Guard Armory

Subcommittee on Labor/HHS:
• $1,000,000 for Texas Southern University for Special Collections of the Robert James Terry Library
• $484,292 for Harris County Hospital District for Harris County Digital Mammography Units Upgrade
• $700,000 for CHRISTUS Foundation for Healthcare for San Jose Clinic
• $305,000 for University of Houston for Center for Retention of STEM Educators
• $3,000,000 for Texas Engineering and Technical Consortium for Texas Youth in Technology
• $427, 800 for AVANCE Parent Child Education and Family Support
• $1,230,000 for University of Houston for Center for Student Success
• $2,000,000 for Houston Independent School District for College Bound, Beginning at Birth
• $500,000 for Communities In Schools - Houston
• $1,500,000 for Excellent Care Management for Excel-E-Care Workforce Development Center
• $152,451 for Houston Areal Urban League for CI2 Network for Northeast Family YMCA
• $930,000 for Texas A&M Institute for Obesity Research and Program Evaluation for Improving the Nutritional Characteristics and Acceptablity of Whole Grain Foods among Children Participating in the National School Lunch Program
• $500,000 for YMCA of Greater Houston for YMCA Vision
• $200,000 for Project GRAD Houston
• $2,550,000 for The Center for Research on Minority Health (CRMH) and Health Disparities Education, Awareness, Research & Training (HDEART) Consortium
• $2,000,000 for The Thurgood Marshall College Fund for The National Education, Science and Critical Skills Capacity Building Project
• $500,000 for The Children's Museum of Houston for TotSpot Exhibit
• $3,000,000 for University of Texas, Harris County, Psychiatric Center for capital improvements

Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations:
• $2,400,000 for Dikembe Mutumbo Foundation for Foreign Assistance to American Schools and Hospitals Abroad Program

Subcommittee on Transportation, HUD:
• $90,000,000 for Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County for Advanced Transit Program/ METRO Solutions Bus Expansion
• $125,000,000 for Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County for Advanced Transit Program/ METRO Solutions Phase 2
• $4,000,000 for Greater Southeast Management District for Greater Southeast Transit Terminal and Holocaust Museum Diversity Training and Transit Center
• $280,700 for Harris County Hospital District for Houston/Harris County Telephone Nurse Triage Service
• $2,800,000 for Houston Downtown Management District for Clean Fuel Transit Initiative
• $1,584,000 for Texas Medical Center for Intelligent Information System
• $8,000,000 for Texas Medical Center for Intermodal Transit Garage
• $10,000,000 for Texas Dept. of Transportation for Interstate 69
• $1,000,000 for the Veterans Museum in Texas
• $2,000,000 for Port of Houston for Port Road Expansion and Improvements
• $2,000,000 for Texas Medical Center for Transit Circulator System
• $1,000,000 for City of Houston for Urban Corridor Planning & Implementation
• $2,000,000 for City of Houston Public Library for the African American Library at the Gregory School
• $616,000 for the Houston Food Bank for Commodity Supplemental Food Programs

From www.chron.com (Houston Chronicle) Posted by Patrick Brendel at April 4, 2008 04:03 PM

Know Your Pork!!

Pork barrel politics refers to government spending that is intended to benefit constituents of a politician in return for their political support, either in the form of campaign contributions or votes.

It is said the term originated early in American history, when slaves were sometimes given a barrel of salt pork as a reward, and had to compete among themselves to get their share of the handout.

Typically it involves funding for government programs whose economic or service benefits are concentrated in a particular area but whose costs are spread among all taxpayers. Public works projects and agricultural subsidies are the most commonly cited examples, but they do not exhaust the possibilities.

Pork barrel spending is often allocated through last-minute additions to appropriation bills. A politician who supplies his or her constituents with considerable funding is said to be "bringing home the bacon."

One of the most famous pork-barrel projects was the Big Dig in Boston, Massachusetts. The Big Dig was a project to take a pre-existing 3.5 mile interstate highway and relocate it underground. It ended up costing $14.6 billion or over $4 billion per mile.

This Little Piggy Went to Congress

Posted 8/9/2005 9:50 PM


Pet projects make roads bill a real Lulu — of excess

Late in Ronald Reagan's presidency, he decided to take a stand against Congress' habit of squandering money on pet projects of no national value. He vetoed the 1987 highway bill because it was $10 billion over his budget and included more than 100 projects demanded by members of Congress.
"I haven't seen this much lard since I handed out blue ribbons at the Iowa State Fair," Reagan said at the time.

He should see what's happening now. President Bush flies to Illinois today to sign a transportation bill that's $12 billion fatter than he wanted and uses accounting gimmicks to pretend otherwise. Worse, it contains a whopping 6,371 congressional "earmarks," a 50-fold increase over the number Reagan rejected.

Pork has always been part of politics, and a little bit of it can help grease the gears of government. What makes this legislation remarkable is the sheer magnitude of pet projects, and the shamelessness of the members of Congress promoting them.

Tucked into the highway and mass transit bill are funds for bus stops, parking lots, hiking paths, museums, even horse trails and a "deer avoidance system."

Motorists will pay at the pump to finance:

• $223 million for a bridge linking Ketchikan, Alaska, to an offshore island where only 50 people live.

• $231 million for another locally controversial bridge linking Anchorage to an undeveloped point of land nearby — a bridge the bill names "Don Young's Way," for the Alaska congressman and Transportation Committee chairman who pulled off the boondoggle.

• $5.8 million for a snowmobile trail in Vermont.

• $3 million for "dust control mitigation" on Arkansas' rural roads.

• $480,000 to rehabilitate a 19th century warehouse on the Erie Canal in New York.

Young is the champion at tapping the Treasury for local projects, mandating almost $1 billion for public works across his thinly populated state. And he self-aggrandizingly twisted the bill's name into the cumbersome "Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act — A Legacy for Users." The resulting acronym, SAFETEA-LU, redeems a promise to name the bill for his wife, Lu.

Other powerful members of Congress have used their clout similarly. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., grabbed $630 million for his largely agricultural district. Rep. James Oberstar, top Democrat on the transportation panel, snagged $121 million for his Minnesota district, including $560,000 for a Paul Bunyan State Trail.

The earmarks divert nearly 10% of the bill's spending to congressional whim, reducing the amount state transportation departments have to allocate among bottlenecks, dangerous intersections and other priorities.

Congress once behaved better. In 1914, the House of Representatives adopted a rule prohibiting legislation funding specific roads, leaving those decisions to professionals. The ban has never been revoked, just ignored.

Even in death, Reagan can't escape Congress' enthusiasm for turning gas tax revenue into political pork. Among the earmarks in this year's bill is $2.3 million for "landscape enhancements ... for aesthetic purposes" — new plantings — along the Ronald Reagan Freeway in California.

Congress eventually overrode Reagan's veto, but he had the right idea. Instead of celebrating the transportation bill today, Bush should be following his example and sending it back to Congress for a thorough de-larding.

Posted 8/9/2005 9:50am at www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-08-09-our-view_x.htm