If I’m to believe a fairly reliable source, Sunday will be the day that pork retains its supreme position on the mind of our Senators, whether newly sworn in or grizzled veterans of the halls of the Capitol. There is one exception, though; a taxpayer-friendly Senator has gone on record as opposing the bill (S.22) for a number of reasons – that man is Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn. (Fair warning: the bill is 1,294 pages long!)
Coburn’s point is that placing more land under federal control and restriction makes little sense when the land already under federal supervision has a serious need for maintenance. And while he attempted to add thirteen amendments onto the bill, each of them were tabled. The amendments would have corrected many egregious provisions in the bill, including, among others:
- No initiatives or new national parks, monuments, Heritage Areas, etc. would be established until maintenance backlogs at a number of existing areas are eliminated.
- Land could not be withdrawn from “disposition under the mineral leasing, mineral materials, or geothermal leasing laws.”
- Prevent land from being acquired via eminent domain.
- An accounting of the amount of land owned or controlled by the federal government compared to the total land area in each state and nationally, plus an accounting of the cost of maintenance backlogs and a tallying of unused or vacant assets.
- A delay in the effective date until “which the Inspector General of the Department of the Interior issues a finding that no laws were violated by the employees of the National Landscape Conservation System in the investigation of the Inspector General relating to allegations of improper coordination between employees of the National Landscape Conservation System and environmental advocacy organizations.”
- Allowing hunting on federal land, with prudent restrictions.
- Prevents obstructions to building a border fence or affecting border security operations.
Since it’s an omnibus bill, you also get a number of provisions which failed to make the cut in the 110th Congress. One I found most interesting is the next-to-last Title in the bill, dubbed the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act. It was a bill which didn’t make it through the last Congress, so it was thrown into this one in the hopes to sneak it through this way.
This is a symptom of the problem we have with our current form of government and the rules they operate under. Instead of each of these provisions being debated on its own merits, they’re approved as one lump sum and the pork is spread around without regard to taxpayer cost – just as long as each state gets a share. The Senate also seems to have little regard to the states and localities who may be affected when their tax base is taken away from them.
Another item I’d like to point out is my wondering if any Senator has actually read all 1,294 pages of the bill to understand it. While all bills aren’t that long, yesterday the Senate went over 180 bills already introduced for the session. That leads me to wonder just how many pages each Senator needs to read just to stay current with the legislation proposed. I know, it’s why they have staff.
Knowing that the vote will be held on Sunday, it seems to me that while many of us are watching the NFL playoffs, Harry Reid will call for a quarterback sneak of his own. Whether we can run the proper defense to stop this will depend on the willingness of Senators to listen.
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