Supplemental bill stocked with non-terror items

Highway builders, needy college students, fishermen and a tiny town in the mountains of North Carolina are among those who will benefit from the 2002 supplemental spending bill that Congress passed and President Bush signed in the name of responding to terror-despite Bush's rejection this week of a big chunk of the $28.9 billion package.

Bush declared he would not spend $5.1 billion because "a lot of that money has nothing to do with national emergency." But the supplemental law and conference report reveal the administration as well as Congress used the anti-terror train to pull other loads. The pressure to pack the bill was great because of tight caps on agency appropriations, said Ellen Taylor of OMB Watch.

"When there are these tight situations, legislators look for any moving train to get on," Taylor said.

The supplemental's actual outlay will exceed the net $23.8 billion price tag after Bush's cuts because it commits the government to spend another $4.4 billion on highways. That money will come from the Highway Trust Fund and restores more than half of a budget cut Bush recommended in February.

The administration had proposed spreading the pain of its recommended $8.6 billion cut among the states according to a pre-existing formula. But conferees renegotiated how much states would get. They provided more money to appropriators' states-West Virginia, Kentucky, Washington, Mississippi and Alabama, according to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who called it "one of the more egregious provisions" in the conference report.

West Virginia is the home state of Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., while the Democratic Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Patty Murray represents Washington. The subcommittee's ranking member, Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, represents Alabama.

The impact of the conferees' additional highway money will be felt for some time. Under the 1998 Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, or TEA-21, highway spending this year provides a baseline for spending in the next five years and as a starting point for negotiations over the scheduled TEA-21 reauthorization next year.

The supplemental is packed with benefits for coastal communities as well. The measure includes more than $40 million for fishermen, fishing towns and marine researchers. New England Republicans such as Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who faces a competitive race for re-election, as well as Democrats worked for these measures.

Elsewhere, the administration applauded the inclusion of $1 billion for Pell grants, which help needy students go to college. House Education and the Workforce Chairman John Boehner, R-Ohio, took credit for it. OMB Director Mitch Daniels praised its inclusion while warning in June that other add-ons in the bill risked a veto, but did object to the grants being labeled an emergency.

Supplemental appropriations bills are often conduits for funds to fight fires and deal with the aftermath of flooding, and this year's was no exception. The Agriculture Department will get $94 million more for flood prevention, even after the president declined $50 million for that purpose. The Army Corps of Engineers got $108 million, including $10 million earmarked for southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and southwestern Virginia.

The tiny town of Rosman, N.C., will get $400,000 in planning funds for building a wastewater system courtesy of its House member, Rep. Charles Taylor, R-N.C., who was a conferee on the bill. The bill also included a directive that the Pulsed Fast Neutron Analysis be field-tested for finding explosives in cargo containers. One company, Ancore Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif., will benefit, McCain said.

Other earmarks: the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Math and Science Education in Columbus, Ohio, a $5 million contract extension; Drexel University in Philadelphia for intelligent transportation systems, $2.7 million redirected; the National Animal Disease Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, $50 million; and mapping coral islands around the Hawaiian islands, $2.5 million.

Ironically, while adding billions for highways, floods and even security measures the president did not ask for, Congress cut $1 billion from the Transportation Security Administration, which was created in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. After losing additional money in Bush's cuts, TSA will get $3.4 billion.