Kansas served slivers of bacon from federal pork-barrel billions
It doesn’t take much looking to find barrels of pork in the $390.5 billion spending bill passed late last week by the U.S. Senate.
There’s $150,000 to remodel a mostly ceremonial office used by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W. Va.; $3 million to help Louisiana’s oyster industry; $1 million to study traffic problems in North Dakota; and $1 million for sampling bear DNA in Montana.
“Here we are, something like $300 billion in debt, about to go to war with Iraq, and the economy is in the toilet — and yet the Senate still finds ways to spend a heck of a lot of money,” said David Williams, vice president at Citizens Against Government Waste, a national association of budget-watchers.
“It’s incredible,” he said. “It’s frustrating. It goes on all the time.”
However, Williams said, Kansas’ presence at the money trough is minimal.
“Kansas isn’t the problem,” he said. “If you look through the ‘earmarks’ in the omnibus bill — there are literally hundreds upon hundreds of them — you won’t see many for Kansas. For that, Senators Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback are to be commended.”
In statements faxed to Kansas newspapers Friday, Roberts, R-Kan., took credit for making sure more than 50 Kansas projects totaling more than $60 million survived the budget-building process.
Taking credit
“I’ve been working hard with appropriations for the past year to make these projects a priority,” Robert’s statement read.
Brownback’s office took credit for highway projects in Lenexa, Olathe and Atchison.
Erik Hotmire, communications director for Brownback, R-Kan., said he saw little significance in Brownback’s citing three projects and Roberts’ list including more than 50.
Army Corps of Engineers official Dave Rhodes says Overlook Park improvements at Clinton Lake will benefit from new federal funding. The .3 million for projects at Clinton comes from a 90.5 billion spending package approved Thursday by the U.S. Senate. Rhodes said Friday that work could begin this winter.
“Senator Brownback is now a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and he will utilize his position to make sure Kansas is taken care of,” Hotmire said.
Deep within the 1,072-page spending bill that passed the Senate late Thursday night, a line of fine print sets aside $2.3 million for a couple of projects at Clinton Lake.
“We don’t know if we’re going to get it because, you know, anything can happen,” said Lew Ruona, operations manager at the U.S. Corps of Engineers Office at the park on Lawrence’s western edge. “But at this point, it looks pretty good. We’re excited about it.”
The Senate-passed omnibus bill is subject to negotiations with the House of Representatives, which begin next week.
“We don’t think it’ll take long,” Hotmire said.
The projects at Clinton Lake include major improvements to Overlook Park at the north end of the dam and replacing the standpipe within Bloomington Park.
Clinton Lake details
“The standpipe really, really needs to be replaced,” Ruona said. “It’s what generates the water pressure in the water lines throughout the park — but it’s the original unit, and it’s in pretty bad shape. It’s got us in precarious position.”
C-Span Pork barrel legislation definitionRuona said the Overlook Project would involve installing new, handicap-accessible sidewalks, new benches and reconfiguring the turnaround.
“We’d like to make it a showcase area,” he said.
The two projects are expected cost about $2.3 million of the $390.5 billion budget bill, which is actually 11 spending measures rolled into one.
In the bill, the Overlook Park project is tied to preparations for the 2004-2006 Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Celebration, even though the explorers’ time in Kansas was spent along the Missouri River at Kansas City, Leavenworth, Atchison and White Cloud.
“The trail itself is something like 30 miles away (from Clinton Lake), but all kinds of upgrades of recreational facilities are going on in anticipation of an influx in tourism,” said Sarah Ross, spokeswoman for Roberts.
Ross said Roberts’ additions to the budget were based on requests from state and federal officials in Kansas.
“Everything that’s in there was asked for,” she said.
| A look at Kansas projects included in the spending bill passed late last week by the U.S. Senate:
¢ $1 million for the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department for a computer-aided dispatch system.¢ $500,000 for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation for lab equipment and an information management system to track evidence.¢ $500,000 for the Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters to expand services to all 105 counties in the state. Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters will use this funding to expand into rural Kansas and smaller communities.¢ $1 million for Kansas YouthFriends to expand the school mentor program. YouthFriends provides more than 48 school districts with a school-based mentoring experience that meets or exceeds all national best practice standards for safety, effectiveness and accountability.¢ $400,000 for Brown Foundation to recognize the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, which will be celebrated in March 2004.¢ $30,000 for Fort Larned to rehabilitate the Commanding Officer’s Quarters.¢ $2.8 million for the Tallgrass National Prairie Preserve to install a fire suppression system.¢ $100,000 for a Manhattan levee project to determine appropriate improvements to the levee system.¢ $125,000 for Topeka to continue a flood damage reduction project that would improve the city’s levee system and avoid potential flood problems.¢ $559,000 for Johnson County to continue study and design work to reduce flooding along the upper and lower portions of Turkey Creek.¢ $331,000 to Kansas City to study the feasibility of a flood damage reduction project concerning the entire Kansas City levee system.¢ $110,000 for a flood study of the Walnut River Basin in south-central Kansas, following significant rural and urban flooding in late 1998.¢ $100,000 for a study on the Neosho River Basin in southeast Kansas to investigate measures to reduce flood damages and other water resource problems in southeastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma.¢ $3 million for Arkansas City to continue the construction of a flood control levee on the Arkansas River and Walnut River.¢ $2.3 million to Clinton Lake for operations and maintenance. ¢ $1.99 million to Council Grove Lake for operations and maintenance. The remaining will be used to make repairs to the embankment road. LakesThe following lakes will receive money:El Dorado Lake, $460,000Elk City Lake, $552,000Fall River Lake, $1.2 millionHillsdale Lake, $752,000John Redmond Dam and Reservoir, $1 millionKanopolis Lake, $1.5 millionMarion Lake, $1.6 millionMelvern Lake, $2 millionMilford Lake, $1.99 millionPearson-Skubitz Big Hill Lake, $1 millionPerry Lake, $2.1 millionPomona Lake, $1.9 millionToronto Lake, $424,000Tuttle Creek Lake, $2.1 millionWilson Lake, $1.8 million Transportation¢ $3 million for the Interstate Highway 35/Turkey Creek project in Kansas City, Kan. This project involves reconstruction of six lanes of I-35 from Southwest Boulevard, north to the Kansas/Missouri state line. It is 1.9 miles in length and includes the replacement of two bridges. The project includes movement of the Turkey Creek channel in cooperation with an U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project to reduce flooding in the area, including the interstate.¢ $1.5 million for the Council Grove Lake Road.¢ $1 million for U.S. Highway 50 reconstruction in Dodge City.¢ $500,000 for the Johnson County Transit Operations Vehicle Locator System, Nolte Center Security and a Transit Coach Improvement Program.¢ $400,000 for the Johnson County Commuter Rail project to continue feasibility work.¢ $1.5 million for Topeka Transit for new buses to replace 15 transit vehicles.¢ $3 million for a statewide bus and facilities replacement program, funded through the Kansas Department of Transportation.¢ $500,000 for Wyandotte County to replace buses.¢ $60,000 for Developmental Services of Northwest Kansas for a paratransit vehicle.¢ $1.75 million for Wyandotte County Job Access program to provide rides for workers from Wyandotte County to Johnson County. Other¢ $500,000 for Mennonite Housing, a nonprofit housing group in Wichita.¢ $500,000 for project connecting the city of Latimer’s water system with Herington’s.¢ $750,000 for the National Institute for Aviation Research for icing research at Wichita State University. Funding will extend basic and applied research on the physics of ice formation on surfaces, the influence of ice accretion on aerodynamics and development of effective de-icing systems.¢ $800,000 for Community Development in Topeka. Agriculture/KSU¢ Food Safety Consortium, $1.6 million¢ Preharvest Food Safety, $208,000¢ Water Conservation, $79,000¢ Wheat Genetics, $255,000¢ Grain Sorghum Research, $175,000¢ Air Quality Research, $750,000.¢ National Canola Research Program, $1 million.¢ Karnal Bunt Research, $300,000¢ Ogallala Aquifer Research, $900,000¢ Grain Sorghum Research, $650,000¢ Renovations at U.S. Grain Marketing and Production Research Center, $4.3 million. |