President
Bush this week withheld $5.1 billion in emergency spending included
in the anti-terror supplemental bill because much of the spending,
including $2 million for a storage facility for the Smithsonian
Institution's worm collection, was unrelated to security.
The $28.6
billion anti-terror spending package signed by Bush gave him the
option of approving all or none of a $5.1 billion chunk. In a
stern warning to Congress, Bush said fiscal restraint is essential
to economic growth.
"In
that particular bill they added $5 billion I didn't ask for. And
they put some fine print in the bill that said either you spend
all the $5 billion or you spend none of the $5 billion,"
said Bush, who spoke Aug. 15 at the face of Mount Rushmore, SD.
"For the sake of fiscal responsibility, I made the decision
to spend none of the extra $5 billion."
Meanwhile,
Citizens Against Government Waste found the following projects
in the fiscal 2002 anti-terror supplemental: $11 million for economic
assistance to New England fisheries; $6 million for plant and
cattle genome sequencing; and $3 million for the drilling of wells
in Santa Fe, NM.
