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First, Pennsylvania's House passed a noncontroversial resolution declaring 2012 "The Year of the Bible," (whatever that means). It was noncontroversial, perhaps, because no one wanted to be the guy who voted against God come re-election season.
Now, we have a new noncontroversial resolution introduced in the House: a declaration of support for and a request for federal funding of the Delaware River Main Channel Deepening — the same dredging project that has elicited lawsuits, Government Accountability Office audits and interstate disputes. Just yesterday, the National Marine Fisheries Service declared the project a direct threat to the Atlantic sturgeon, which was just added to the endangered species list. Also, even if you don't give a crap about sturgeon, a recent economic analysis suggests that the project won't really offer much in the way of economic benefit in our region.
So, noncontroversial seems like … maybe not quite the right word for it.
Maya Van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, offers an alternate term: "absolutely insane."
"It's just another effort to skirt around the ban on earmarks," Van Rossum says. "The project has been shown over and over to be highly questionable, without any clear economic benefits, which is one reason it hasn't been able to get funding without the earmark process."
While Pennsylvania pitched in $15 million toward the project last year, the dredging effort has never made it onto the president's budget, and has survived solely on congressional earmarks up until now, according to Joshua Sewell of Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Sewell describes the project as "trolling for justification." One of the oddest aspects: It derives 17 percent of its claimed economic benefit from importing steel to Pennsylvania — which sounds a lot like importing the proverbial coal to Newcastle. Nonetheless, Sewell points out that, as it currently stands, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could take it upon itself to proceed with a "backdoor earmark," using money from its 26 slush funds worth a collective $507 million. The Corps is expected to announce how it will spend that money on Monday.
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