Projects planned for state
Projects planned for state

By Chris Casteel Comments 0
Published: January 2, 2008

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.

Many lawmakers defend earmarked projects, contending that members of Congress know better than government agency bureaucrats where money should be spent.

Among the Oklahoma earmarks in the year-end spending bill:

•$195,000 for Rural Hospital Digital Radiology and Communication System at INTEGRIS Health.

•$243,000 for the KIPP Reach College Preparatory school in Oklahoma City.

•$97,000 for the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation for construction, renovation of Biotech Research Tower.

•$97,000 for St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City for a nursery for newborns.

•$300,000 for buses and para-transit vans in Oklahoma City.

•$500,000 for the I-40 Crosstown Expressway project.

•$250,000 for a downtown revitalization project in Lawton.

•$750,000 for biofuels refining at the University of Oklahoma.

•$624,000 for the Norman Regional Health System for tele-health and electronic medical records projects.

•$5.6 million for the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River navigation system.

•$100,000 to renovate the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center in Enid.

•$600,000 for improvements at the City of Altus/Quartz Mountain regional airport.

•$100,000 for construction of the Newkirk Senior Citizens Center.

•$20 million to rehabilitate watershed dams.

•$426,174 for the Delaware Boys and Girls Club.

•$490,000 for the Sequoyah County Wildlife Refuge Road.

•$240,000 for wheat enhancement research at Oklahoma State University.

•$235,000 for forensics equipment at the University of Central Oklahoma.

•$2.9 million for the tornado/severe storm research at the University of Oklahoma.

•$97,000 for the Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation for educational programs and services.

•$6.4 million for remediation and relocation at the Tar Creek Superfund Site.

•The bill also includes money for several military construction projects at Oklahoma bases. Some of the projects relate to the 2005 round of base closures, which will bring the Air Defense Artillery School and an Air Defense Artillery brigade to Fort Sill.

•Money is also included for new Armed Forces Reserve Centers in Oklahoma City; at Fort Sill; at Vance Air Force Base in Enid; in Norman; and at the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant.