Projects planned for state

WASHINGTON — Members of Oklahoma's congressional delegation secured several million dollars of "earmarks” in the massive year-end spending bill, directing money to roads, schools, agricultural research, hospitals, Tar Creek residents and other projects.

Dozens of Oklahoma earmarks were among the nearly 9,000 (worth $7.5 billion), tucked into the bill.

All of Oklahoma's House members voted for the bill, while the state's two senators voted against it. President Bush signed the legislation, but he criticized the earmarks and suggested he may look for ways to cancel at least some of them.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, who has been on a crusade against earmarks and often tries to strip them from funding bills, said last week, "Congress has ignored the needs of our troops in combat, the looming bankruptcy of Social Security and Medicare, and the nearly insurmountable national debt that threatens the future prosperity of our nation, while showing virtually no restraint on spending, especially for parochial pork projects.”

Outside groups such as Citizens Against Government Waste and Taxpayers for Common Sense, which track earmarks, said the number of the home-state projects had increased by 1,080 over 2006, when Republicans were in charge of Congress, but that the cost had decreased by $15 billion, about 51 percent.

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