Continuing his analysis of appropriations measures, Senate Commerce Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., Friday urged President Clinton to review possible line item vetoes for at least 10 projects in the Treasury-Postal bill conference agreement and at least seven projects in the Energy and Water bill agreement that were not included in either the House or Senate versions of the legislation. The Energy and Water bill earmarks Army Corps of Engineers funds for 68 specific projects, he said.
"I am writing to again urge you to use your line item veto authority to eliminate wasteful and unnecessary spending provisions," McCain wrote Clinton.
In the Energy and Water agreement, conferees earmarked a total of $32 million for seven projects that were not included in either the House or Senate version. The largest of the projects would set aside $6.9 million in Tennessee Valley Authority funds for work on the Land Between the Lakes. McCain said some of the projects were taken from nonbinding language in the House and Senate bills.
"Inasmuch as these provisions were added in conference, without the benefit of administration, congressional or public view, I would urge you to review them carefully," McCain wrote in his letter to Clinton.
McCain said that, as with other funding bills, the conferees "explicitly endorsed" all of the earmarks in either the House or Senate bill. McCain questioned set asides of at least $14 million in his home state of Arizona.
In the Treasury-Postal funding measure, conferees specifically earmarked a total of almost $22 million for 10 projects, including the establishment of three new high-density drug trafficking areas and provisions requiring compliance with "buy America" trade restrictions. McCain also questioned a variety of set asides contained in House and Senate bills that were endorsed by conferees.
Earlier, McCain questioned some 129 projects in the Military Construction appropriations measure and a myriad of provisions in the Defense bill. A House GOP aide today questioned the standards McCain and others use in evaluating bills, saying that, in some cases, the projects are on the list simply because they were not requested by the administration.
"We really take issue with that," the aide said, contending that if that standard is used, "Why do we have the Congress?" McCain's letters and the list of projects he wants the president to review can be found at the senator's Internet site on the World Wide Web at www.senate.gov/~mccain.
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