Last week we awarded the Golden Fleece to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees for continuing the absurd practice of sending thousands of tons of coal from Pennsylvania thousands of miles to Germany to power U.S. military bases. This set aside began more than 50 years ago to protect the anthracite coal mining industry and, unbelievably, continues to this day.

The day after this Golden Fleece was made public we received a call from the office of Representative Jared Huffman (D-CA,) interested in sponsoring an amendment to the defense appropriations bill to strike the language that mandated this program. 

On Wednesday night, after frenzied work by the staffs of Representative Huffman and Representative Tom McClintock (R-CA) the House of Representatives voted on a bi-partisan amendment to strike the language that mandated this crazy program. The final vote was 252 in favor and 179 opposed. So this was a clear, bi-partisan, recognition that it was past time to kill this outdated government subsidy.