It’s pretty obvious nobody even read this bill because there are three full pages of appropriations to several agencies that are literally duplicated in the document. I kid you not… Talk about double dipping.
The first Sandy Relief bill adds $10 billion to the national flood relief fund, which covers the fiscal damages to property caused by the storm.
The second Sandy Relief Bill, officially known as H.R. 152, Disaster Relief and Appropriations Act, is currently on the president’s desk for his John Henry. It’s 110 pages long and quite detailed. Here’s the link at govtrack.us
When the original $64 billion bill was passed by the Senate, nobody was happy with it. The general consensus was that only $9.7 billion of the money would even be spent in fiscal year 2013. The rest was money for Alaskan fisheries projects, a new roof for the Smithsonian and many other projects unrelated to the hurricane.
Anyway, here are the numbers I could glean from the bill itself:
$20 million for the Corps of Engineers to investigate the area impacted by the hurricane to assess risks.
(I can solve that – make the east coast up to 200 miles inland comply with the building standards that apply to every structure along the Gulf Coast.)
$9 million for construction projects that were underway when Sandy hit
$742 million to repair damage to navigation channels
$742 million to support emergency operations, repairs and other operations
$10 million for grants to provide technical assistance related to disaster recovery
$100 million for disaster loans to small businesses (they didn’t have insurance?)
$143 million to the Coast Guard for unspecified improvements
$3 million to Homeland Security for research related to disasters
(As you read through this, please realize that none of these would be a problem if the government had insurance on their buildings.)
$50 million for repair to fisheries damaged by Sandy (in Alaska? I knew salmon swam a long ways to get back home – but this is ridiculous)
$234 million to the National Park Service for damage done by Sandy
$100 million for HHS for block grants
$25 million for HHS child and family services programs
$2 million for Social Security for unspecified administrative expenses
$24 million for military construction for consequences of Hurricane Sandy
$21 million to the VA for medical services for Sandy areas plus another $6 million for medical facilities
$1.1 million to the national cemetery administration
$207 million for unspecified “major construction projects”
$14 million to the FAA
$32 million for the Federal Railroad Administration
$5 million for public transportation systems
(Do you start to get the idea that this is 95% an infrastructure bill to fix up everything that was and wasn’t damaged by the hurricane?)
$4 million for community development
$218 million for agricultural conservation
$290 million for “operations, research and facilities” at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (why can’t they just tune in to the weather channel – they have better information by far, and it’s all free)
$186 million for “procurement, acquisition and construction at NOAA
$10 million to the FBI for “salaries and expenses”
$10 million for the Federal Prison System
$15 million for damage to NASA facilities
(Funny, I didn’t see one single news story about any damage to any federal agencies.)
$85 million to all five branches of the military PLUS
$50 million to the Army for “investigations”
$821 million to the Army for “operations and maintenance”
$1 billion (Now we’re talking!) to the Army for “flood control and coastal emergencies” plus an additional $10 million for “expenses”
$17 million for the GSA for damage to buildings
$520 million for GSA’s “disaster loans program”
$11 billion to FEMA (we love FEMA, don’t we? – not including the $10 billion already give to the flood insurance program)
$300 million to FEMA’s “disaster assistance direct loan program:
(Boy, I’m thinking, I sure hope a hurricane hits where I live – ASAP – we need some easy money.)
$78 million to repair the Stewart B. McKinny National Wildlife Refuge (for the birds or the people who visit there?)
$50 million for the Fish and Wildlife fund “historic preservation fund” plus another $234 million for “construction”
(Have you noticed that no actual construction projects are specified anywhere by any agency?)
$600 million for “state and tribal assistance grants” (to repair their casinos)
$4 million for a new roof at the Smithsonian (one of the only line items anybody in the media mentioned – hey, I like the Smithsonian.)
$800 million more for HHS (we’ve seen them already)
Chapter 9 goes on to duplicate grants already delineated to the FAA, the federal railroad administration and public transportation (apparently they get 2x what they asked for)
$19 billion (banza1i!) to HUD’s “community development fund”
Then follows some standard boilerplate that says the President approves all money for all projects as submitted by the head of FEMA.
Yep, it’s just as I thought. 100% pork. Worse than that, it’s a $50 billion slush fund that the President can dole out as he wants to give favors to anybody he wants to.
Boy, is this ugly or what?
U.G.L.Y.
