Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Earmarks...

They're gone...

Tomorrow, the Democratic House will take up the continuing resolutions to fund nine of hte 11 federal agencies for the remainder of the current fiscal year. The last Congress did not finalize those funding budgets, instead they adopted continuing resolutions that provided funding through Feb. 15 - leaving the next Congress to finish up the work.

As part of the Democratic plan, all earmarks - the specific pet projects included in the original proposals - have been stripped away. However, Democrats have increased the overall funding in many of the budgets - such as increases in veterans health care programs, Pell grants, Transportation funding, etc.

What it means is this:

Those projects that had been specifically signled out for federal funds are no longer part of the budget process - and agencies and organizations hoping to get federal funds for projects will now have to compete for those funds with other groups from across the nation.

It's still too early to say how that is going to affect projects and programs here in eastern Connecticut - and may be some time before that is known.

But for those who sought to eliminate the practice of "earmarks" in the federal budget - it's a minor success.

1 Comments:

Blogger mccommas said...

I just love the positive spin you put on that for your pal. He lost us millions and its a good thing!

5:32 PM  

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