The following is a written statement from Steve Ellis, Vice President for Programs at Taxpayers for Common Sense on the Senate passage of H.R. 2419, the FY 2006 Energy and Water Appropriations bill:

Washington, D.C. – Before they headed out of town to celebrate the 4th of July, the Senate launched some fiscal fireworks of their own. The Senate in today's wee morning hours passed the $31.245 billion Fiscal Year 2006 Energy and Water Appropriations bill. This bill, H.R. 2419, funds the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, and Department of Energy – all important sources for a pork rich Congressional diet. Together the bill includes more than 2000 earmarks, the vast majority going to water projects that are littered across the country. The Senate raised the ante on the President’s Corps budget, providing $5.3 billion for the agency, nearly a billion more than the administration’s budget. The Bureau of Reclamation isn’t far behind, getting a nearly $100 million boost over the President’s request, missing the $900 million mark by only $431,000.

Taxpayers for Common Sense’s analysis of the Senate version of H.R. 2419 found that energy and water projects are Congress’ favorite way of sending money home. Taxpayers are picking up the tab for more than $100 million worth of sand pumping along the nation’s coasts. The new Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman, Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) pumped $74.5 million for projects in Mississippi’s Yazoo basin, including the highly criticized Yazoo pumping plant. Right across the Mississippi River Arkansas’ Grand Prairie Irrigation project reaped $10 million despite administration opposition. After, the President put New Orleans’ Industrial Canal widening project on a suspension list, the Senate revived it with $15 million. All told, projects for the Mississippi River and Tributaries section skyrocketed to $433 million from $270 million in the President’s a more than 60% increase. Environmental Infrastructure projects, a slush fund for vague water projects got more than $70 million for politically connected projects across the country. Clearly, the Corps is the “go to” agency when you’re jonesin’ for a pork fix.

The Central Utah Project and Central Arizona Water Projects strike pay dirt with $34.4 million and $22.2 million in the bill, respectively. Despite massive cost overruns, the Animas-LaPlata project, the dinosaur water project in Colorado, takes home $60 million, $8 million more than the President’s budget. There is $7 million for New Mexico’s Tularosa Basin Desalination Facility, which didn’t make an appearance in the administration’s budget. Likewise, many controversial small water projects like the Mni Wiconi and Lewis and Clark Rural Water Systems get on the gravy train with the Bureau of Reclamation, pulling home $33.5 million and $20 million respectively.

The Department of Energy certainly has a friend in Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), the Chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. Sen. Domenici rained down more than $450 million for nuclear energy programs. The bill is peppered with giveaways to dead-end energy programs like the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) and the Clean Coal Power Initiative.

One of the worst handouts in this bill is $85 million for the AFCI, an increase of $15 million over the President’s request. AFCI, a program to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, would reverse the Ford administration’s de-facto policy against nuclear reprocessing and create a major proliferation risk. The bill has more than $338 million for the construction of a mixed-oxide fuel fabrication facility at Savannah River in South Carolina, and it also contains $577 million in funding for nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain, continuing the federal government’s misguided policy of trying to make that site the nation’s repository of nuclear waste. These government giveaways are big enough to make any nuclear exec squeal with glee – but taxpayers are the ones coughing up the cash.

The bill also contains $100 million for the Clean Coal Power Initiative, doubling the President’s request. Clean coal has been cited time and again by the Government Accountability Office for mishandling taxpayer dollars; this bill rewards clean coal’s record of failure by giving it more money at the taxpayer’s expense.

Charity begins at home. And Sen. Domenici made sure his home state of New Mexico got its share of taxpayer charity. The bill is filled with funding for Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories. One of the most expensive earmarks in the bill is a $270 million appropriation for advanced simulation and computing at Los Alamos; the bill also has $7 million for Los Alamos to design a Nuclear Energy Materials Test Station, and $490,000 for the Tritium System Test Assembly Facility there. The bill has millions more for solar, electricity transmission, nanoscience, and bunker buster weapons projects at Sandia.

Congress is about hit the beach, barbeque hot dogs, sip cool drinks and watch the fireworks over the 4th of July recess. But they’re skipping town, leaving taxpayers to pick up the tab for their wasteful ways.