councilor.org
| Source | Eubulides |
| Date | 14/01/15/02:24 |
| www.nytimes.com
$1.1 Trillion Bill to Avoid Federal Shutdown Covers Many Local Interests By ERIC LIPTON and JONATHAN WEISMANJAN WASHINGTON — A cryptic reference turns up on Page 399 of a six-inch-thick piece of legislation that congressional appropriators unveiled Monday night, calling for an extra $155 million worth of financing for the Department of Energy to promote its nuclear projects. This is the same program — helping for-profit companies build a new generation of small nuclear reactors — that has been called a boondoggle by some spending watchdog groups. But lawmakers, including Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, pressed by industry lobbyists, opted to increase the program’s budget by 21 percent above the Obama administration’s request. “I’m very pleased with that development,” said Mr. Alexander, adding that he met with one of the main beneficiaries, the Babcock & Wilcox Company, two months ago and was assured that the program was “on schedule and on budget.” The first two nuclear reactors are being built in Oak Ridge, Tenn. — 30 minutes from the senator’s hometown. The extra money for nuclear programs is a hint of the kind of deal-making in the 1,582-page spending bill, which leaders in both parties are urging their members to quickly pass into law to avoid another government shutdown. The House is expected to do so on Wednesday. The $1.1 trillion bill marks the first time in two years that individual lawmakers have been able to put an imprint on virtually every part of the federal budget, and they did so in ways subtle and direct. Lawmakers are again boasting about bringing home the bacon, whether it is Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, bragging on Tuesday about the new KC-46A refueling plane and P-8A Poseidon military aircraft to be built by Boeing in her state, or the three House Democrats from California taking credit for money they won to expand a border crossing near San Diego. “Unfortunately, pork barrel seems to be back in vogue,” said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, a critic of the resurgent appropriations process. Democrats were able to wedge in hundreds of millions of dollars to kick-start President Obama’s universal preschool initiative, even as Republicans continued to claim they had blocked it. Republicans secured provisions blocking regulations on small farms, coal plants and mine waste, even as Democrats boasted they had rebuffed such “riders.” The budget package also was a way for Republicans to push a political agenda, severely cutting administration requests for financing of the Securities Exchange Commission and a second agency that is responsible for carrying out the Dodd-Frank law that regulates Wall Street. They also cut Internal Revenue Service spending in the wake of the agency’s efforts to place political groups under extra scrutiny. A billion-dollar public health fund created by the Affordable Care Act survived in name only. Republicans made sure that every cent of the money was parceled out to programs that are not connected to the health law. The Energy Department’s budget increase stands to primarily benefit two companies: Babcock & Wilcox, based in Charlotte, N.C., and NuScale Power, owned in large part by the Fluor Corporation, an engineering and contracting firm in Irving, Tex. The two companies have already been picked to receive as much as $450 million in federal cost-sharing grants to help them build a new type of reactor that is smaller, and considered safer, than the traditional design. But with recent federal budget cutbacks, financing had slowed. Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington group that searches federal budgets for wasteful spending, targeted the reactor program last year, saying that private companies should spend their own money to determine if the technology can prove commercially viable. “The reality is we absolutely cannot afford to pile more market-distorting subsidies for profitable companies,” the group wrote, in awarding the Golden Fleece award to the Department of Energy for the program, called Small Modular Reactors. But the industry asked that Congress accelerate the program, backing it up with repeated visits by industry lobbyists and with campaign contributions to lawmakers, including Mr. Alexander. He is the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee overseeing the Energy Department budget and the top Senate recipient of donations from Babcock & Wilcox. Financing for the program was increased by $43 million, above the administration’s request, one of the largest parts of the $155 million overall boost in spending advocated by the budget negotiators for the Energy Department’s nuclear program. Lawmakers also worked behind the scenes to secure special provisions in the package, known as riders, that push their political goals — measures that at times benefit specific industries. Representative Harold Rogers, a coal-country Republican from Kentucky, secured a measure that prohibits the United States Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation from cutting export financing for coal-fired power plants that do not meet the Obama administration’s proposed standard for cutting carbon emissions, a measure strongly advocated by industry lobbyists. Another policy provision blocks the Army Corps of Engineers from even looking at its definition of “fill,” the earthen material left from coal mines. In the early years of the Bush administration, the definition of fill was significantly loosened, allowing coal companies to push rubble from mountaintops into valleys and streambeds. Environmental groups pressed the administration to bring back the old definition, a campaign made easier by this month’s chemical spill in West Virginia, which highlighted the contamination of the state’s water supplies. The preschool initiative is another illustration of both parties’ delicate political dance. When the spending bill was unveiled Monday night, Mr. Rogers of Kentucky, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, boasted that the president got no money for preschool development grants he has loudly promoted. But advocates say the president’s “preschool-for-all” proposal did get financing through other means. Democrats secured $250 million to help states finance efforts to develop preschool quality standards, kindergarten entry assessments, professional development for educators and other support programs. A large increase in Head Start financing was billed as makeup money after the popular program took a significant blow last year from the spending cuts known as sequestration. And about $500 million of the Head Start increase is for “early Head Start,” preschool by a different name. “It is unquestionably a small down payment” on universal preschool, said Catriona Macdonald, the Washington team leader for the First Five Years Fund, an advocacy group. “What this signals is that Republicans and Democrats see momentum for early childhood, and I think that will continue.” |
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