Finding Pork in unusual places
It seems that the Department of Homeland Security does quite the job of distributing Pork. From
CNS News:
Homeland Security Funding 'Pork' Under Fire
In 2005, Kentucky won a $36,300 grant from the Department of Homeland Security to protect bingo halls from terrorist infiltration, and last year, the federal government granted $46,908 in homeland security funds to protect a limo and bus service that transports New Yorkers to the affluent Hamptons region in Long Island.
In 2004, five days before Christmas, the government announced a $153 million homeland security grant to provide food and shelter for the homeless, and in the last fiscal year, $15.7 million in homeland security funds went for enforcement of child labor laws.
While spending government money on questionable projects isn't especially unusual in Washington, some government watchdogs and other groups say homeland security money should be off limits for pork barrel spending.
"Money spent on these projects is money not spent on something we need," Veronique de Rugy, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told Cybercast News Service. The AEI issued a report last year concerning wasteful homeland security spending.
In many cases, Congress earmarks spending, while in others, the DHS has discretion in allocating state and local grants.
A few more examples of this:
$102,000 for the promotion of public awareness of a child pornography tip line;
$203,000 for Project Alert, a drug use prevention program in schools;
$7.9 million in homeland security funds went to investigate missing and exploited children;
$900,000 to the Steamship Authority that runs ferries to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts;
$180,000 for a tactical urban combat truck with similar armor to a military Humvee in LaCrosse, Wis.
Don't know about you but I certainly feel a lot safer knowing this...
(set sarcasm=off)
Posted by DaveH at February 24, 2007 12:47 PM