Sen. Coburn Leads Decision to Kill Spending for Pork Fund
By: Laura Leigh Shull | Source: IRN NEWS
April 28, 2006 11:39AM EST
Sen. Tom Coburn of OK led the Senate in a decision to kill a fund for a seafood promotion program that had been attached to a bill for the Iraq war and further hurricane relief for the Gulf Coast on Thursday. The 51-44 vote was a small but symbolic victory for conservatives. This has been the first successful attempt to decrease the $106.5 billion measure, which is $12 billion more than the President has agreed upon. The seafood promotions program fund was only a small part of the $1.1 billion relief bill for the seafood industry on the Gulf Coast. The addition came about during a committee debate by Sen. Richard Shelby of AL. Sen. Coburn still has more amendments remaining, and is optimistic he’ll prevail on some of them. Some of the funding he plans to eliminate includes a bill provision to give Ingles Shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss up to $500 million in compensation for business disruption caused by Hurricane Katrina. If they were to receive federal money, their insurers could be let off the hook, leaving taxpayers with the burden. He is also trying to kill a $230 million fund going to the procurement costs for three unrequested V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft.
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