Omnibusting: Omnibus Spending Bill, Earmarks, Pork and Budget Gimmicks

With attention shifting from the White House to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on the anti-earmark executive order, sources on Capitol Hill called our attention to the following story from Dec. 21 in the Bowling Green Daily News. The Kentucky newspaper spells out exactly why McConnell has taken a personal interest in preserving earmarks in the omnibus.

Western Kentucky University and Barren County stand to benefit from the federal budget recently passed by Congress - that is, if President Bush decides to leave those earmarks untouched.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., secured funding totaling more than $4.7 million for several projects in the area, part of a $550 billion omnibus budget bill recently approved by both the Senate and House.

…

Among the many projects for which McConnell secured funding were:

• $1.4 million for the construction of an Agriculture Research Service lab at WKU, the third installment of funds for the lab;

• $1.462 million to buy equipment and technology for WKU’s Science Building;

• $705,000 for the WKU Environmental Monitoring Network;

• $487,000 for WKU’s Mobile Health Screening Unit to buy new communications technology;

• $350,000 for WKU’s Small Public Water Technology Center;

• $90,000 for the WKU/Green River Water Quality and Biological Diversity Project;

• Continued funding for WKU researchers to study the nutritional value of new forages for livestock and animal health systems;

• $235,000 for the Barren County Sheriff’s Office to purchase mobile data terminals and other communications equipment.

Let’s not forget that McConnell was among the first people on Capitol Hill to boast about the pork-barrel projects he was bringing home with him for Christmas.

This was a tough year in the appropriations process, but after a long fight, Kentucky came out a winner. … Whether it’s for education, defense or agriculture, I will continue to use my seniority in the United States Senate to help bring home funding on behalf of the hard working people of Kentucky.

Is it really any surprise he’s lobbying Bush so aggressively?