SEN. VITTER'S AMENDMENT (02/06/2009)
U.S. Sen. David Vitter today introduced an amendment to remove wasteful spending from the stimulus bill currently being considered by Congress. Vitter’s amendment removes almost $47.6 billion in funding that is not focused on creating jobs to help stimulate the economy by targeting the removal of approximately $30.4 billion in direct spending and striking the Davis-Bacon provision, saving more than $17 billion in inflated construction costs.
“All of us want to act to help our struggling economy, but this bill has devolved into a laundry list of government spending programs,” said Vitter. “A good portion of this funding has been set aside for worthy programs but this ever-growing stimulus bill is not the venue for these projects to be considered. We can debate and address some of these worthy measures another day, another time and in another bill. The American people have been told that this bill will help stimulate our ailing economy and it should do just that. We’re not going to get out of this recession by removing small and medium-sized fish barriers.”
Examples Vitter cited of such wasteful spending include:
· $20 million for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove small and mid-sized fish barriers
· $1 billion for the 2010 census
· $600 million for the federal government to purchase energy efficient vehicles
· $500 million for NASA climate change studies
· $850 million to bail out Amtrak
· $100 million for the Department of Defense to purchase hybrid vehicles
· $2.25 billion for groups engaged in neighborhood stabilization programs, such as ACORN and other entities
“What we are looking at here is traditional Washington spending that’s about pursuing pet spending programs – building big government and government buildings – instead of creating new jobs,” Vitter said. “We need to change the core of this bloated stimulus so that it addresses real job creation and this amendment would be a good start as an act of good faith for the American people.”
