Tom Tancredo: “in his budget request to Congress, President Bush proposed reversing the cost-share ratio for beach replenishment…”

“in his budget request to Congress, President Bush proposed reversing the cost-share ratio for beach replenishment projects from 65 percent Federal share/35 percent local share, to 35 percent Federal/65 percent local. The energy and water appropriations bill includes language to block this proposal. The Tancredo-Blumenauer amendment would strip the bill of this fiscally damaging and environmentally questionable legislative rider. In an interview with the Associated Press yesterday, Office of Management and Budget spokesman Chris Ullman said that the White House continues to believe that the Federal Government should spend less to build beaches. ``Since most of the benefits are to localities and local beachgoers, it seems reasonable that they would pay the majority of the costs of sustaining those beaches.'' The Army Corps of Engineers recently began the world's largest beach replenishment project, to provide 100-foot wide beaches along all 127 miles of New Jersey's coast. This is at an average cost of $60 million per mile. Right now, the Federal Government is obligated to pay the majority of that cost, or 65 percent to be exact. What is worse, most artificial beaches wash away within 1 year of replenishment, leaving taxpayers' money and environmental damage left in their wake, so to speak.”