There are thousands of “earmarks” in the pending $328 billion federal spending bill, says the Washington Post: specific projects written into the measure by lawmakers in both parties. Lawmakers argue that they are better able than federal bureaucrats to evaluate the merits of local funding requests. Critics say the projects represent “pork barrel” spending, spending that should be the responsibility of local communities, not all federal taxpayers.
Among earmarks in the crime area cited by the Post: $550,000 for Turtle Mountain Community College for Project Peacemaker; $100,000 for the South Dakota Association of County Commissioners for law enforcement communications equipment; $1 million for behavioral health research for at-risk youths at the University of Connecticut; $250,000 for the North Kingstown, R.I., police department for equipment and related expenses; $200,000 for the Las Vegas metropolitan police forces’ SWAT team; $250,000 for Gospel Rescue Ministries; $200,000 for the after-school program of the Merit School of Music in Chicago and $750,000 for Alaska’s Community in Schools Mentoring Program.
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31120-2003Dec25.html