... is this the 700 billion dollar bill or another one? I didnt realize it was comprised of several different items if it is ...
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20080928-NEWS-809280344 $22 million for shipyard goes to Bush September 28, 2008 6:00 AM WASHINGTON (AP) The U.S. Senate on Saturday passed a sprawling spending bill that includes $22.11 million for the construction of a new dry dock at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. The bill now goes to President Bush, who was expected to sign it even though it spends more money and contains more pet projects than he would have liked. Republican U.S. Senators Judd Gregg and John Sununu of New Hampshire and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins applauded passage of the bill. The senators issued a joint statement that included: "The fact that our request for the dry dock waterfront support facility was fully appropriated before Congress concluded its business for the year is a big win for the shipyard. Fortunately, the final bill did not defer to the House funding level of $1.45 million, which would have underfunded and delayed completion of this critical project by the time the shipyard is slated to begin work on the new Virginia class submarines in 2010." The bill also includes $9.9 million to consolidate aging facilities at the yard into a more efficiently configured warehouse with automated material handling systems, thereby reducing overhead support costs, energy usage, overtime and infrastructure repair expenditures. The total price tag for the bill is $634 billion, which is needed to keep the government operating beyond the current budget year, which ends Tuesday. In the bill, automakers gained $25 billion in taxpayer-subsidized loans and oil companies won elimination of a long-standing ban on drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The action does not mean drilling is imminent and still leaves the oil-rich eastern Gulf of Mexico off limits. But it could set the stage for the government to offer leases in some Atlantic federal waters as early as 2011. Also in the bill is money to avert a shortfall in Pell college aid grants and solve problems in the Women, Infants and Children program delivering healthy foods to the poor. Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group, discovered 2,322 pet projects totaling $6.6 billion. That included 2,025 in the defense portion alone that cost a total of $4.9 billion. Critics of such "earmarks" promise to scrutinize them in coming weeks and months for links to lobbyists and campaign contributions. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:271465 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
