Pete Domenici: “Mr. President, I am astounded and very pleased to note that the FY 1998 Labor/HHS appropriations bill is nearly devoid…”

“Mr. President, I am astounded and very pleased to note that the FY 1998 Labor/HHS appropriations bill is nearly devoid of any pork-barrel language, at least in the bill itself. After careful scrutiny of the measure, I have found only one section of the bill which is clearly pork. That is section 506, which contains the language on Buy America set-asides that appears to be standard practice in this year's appropriations bills. Other than these Buy America provisions, which I continue to strenuously oppose, I can find no other egregious examples of pork-barrel spending in the bill language. For this restraint, I thank the subcommittee chairman, Senator Specter, and the members of the Appropriations Committee. Unfortunately, the report does contain a number of earmarks of funds for location-specific, unauthorized, or simply wasteful projects. And it contains, of course, language that is intended to have essentially the same effect as an earmark; by this, I mean the use of words like 'encourage', 'urge', and 'carefully consider' in connection with references to particular institutions, projects, or proposals that the committee would obviously like the relevant agencies to fund.”