Congress adds billions in pork to war spending bill

[Xiahou]

Good thing we put Democrats in charge to stop things like this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

$500 million for emergency wildfires suppression; the Forest Service currently has $831 million for this purpose;

$400 million for rural schools;

$283 million for the Milk Income Loss Contract program;

$120 million to compensate for the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the shrimp and menhaden fishing industries;

$100 million for citrus assistance;

$74 million for peanut storage costs;

$60.4 million for salmon fisheries in the Klamath River region in California and Oregon;

$50 million for asbestos mitigation at the U.S. Capitol Plant;

$48 million in salaries and expenses for the Farm Service Agency;

$35 million for NASA risk mitigation projects in Gulf Coast;

$25 million for spinach growers;

$25 million for livestock;

$20 million for Emergency Conservation Program for farmland damaged by freezing temperatures;

$16 million for security upgrades to House of Representatives office buildings;

$10 million for the International Boundary and Water Commission for the Rio Grande Flood Control System Rehabilitation project;

$6.4 million for House of Representative’s Salaries and Expenses Account for business continuity and disaster recovery expenses;

$5 million for losses suffered by aquaculture businesses including breeding, rearing, or transporting live fish as a result of viral hemorrhagic septicemia;

$4 million for the Office of Women’s Health at the Food and Drug Administration; and

A minimum wage increase, which is the subject of separate legislation.

link

[Beren Son Of Barahi]

All in all, a wonderful system that should be exported as an example throughout the world. /sc off

[ShadeHonestus]

what? no additional funds for AmTrak this bill? wth...dems are letting me down.

[gunslinger]

GAH! Why can't they just pass the law which says that any bill can only cover one subject at a time? This system of "buying votes" for serious bills by promising local pork is just insane.

Ok, I know why they operate this way, but as long as I'm directing my urine stream toward an incoming low pressure front, I'll ask for term limits too.

Maybe one of the many Constitutional experts here can answer a question for me. Most states have a provision for getting a referendum on a ballot as long as a specified number of signatures supporting it are submitted on a petition. Does such an animal exist on the Federal level? If not, then we are doomed.

[Lemur]

One nice thing about the Dems coming to power in the legislative branch: die-hard Republicans are now willing to talk about pork again.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

$74 million for peanut storage costs;

Peanut. Storage. Costs.