WASTE OF THE WEEK, #12: WOOD USE RESEARCH

WASTE OF THE WEEK, #12: WOOD USE RESEARCH Lawrenceville, NJ – U.S. Senate candidate Dick Zimmer’s “Waste of the Week” campaign this week highlighted Senator Frank Lautenberg’s support to spend over 90.8 million taxpayer dollars to research uses for wood.

Since 1985, funding for the Wood Utilization Research Program has cost taxpayers over 90.8 million dollars. This year, Senator Lautenberg supported the $4.8 million earmark with his vote on the 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Bill. (Citizens Against Government Waste, 2008 Pig Book and HR 2764, House Appropriations Committee Print, Final Version Page 134 and HR 4818, Cnf. Report 108-792, Senate vote 441, on resolving differences, HR 2764, December 27, 2007, Frank Lautenberg voted “yea”)

“Senator Lautenberg might as well be throwing cash in a wood chipper by using federal dollars to fund this classic example of corporate welfare. Is finding uses for sawdust and alternatives for wood chipping something that really should be funded at taxpayers’ expense?

“Particularly in these times of economic peril, government must live within it means and not waste precious resources on a program that, if it has any value, should properly be funded by private industry. New Jersey taxpayers are in the midst of an energy crisis, an affordability crisis and now a financial crisis. This November, we have to opportunity to reshape the way business is done in Washington by electing a Senator who will put the taxpayers first. I will be that Senator.”

Zimmer’s “Waste of the Week” campaign is designed to highlight Senator Frank Lautenberg’s record of supporting wasteful spending and pork-barrel politics at the expense of New Jersey taxpayers. Previous Wastes of the Week were the $300 billion Farm Bill, the $389 million Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska, a $225,000 pamphlet on beaver damage, various Monuments to Me spending projects, the Teapot Museum in North Carolina, the Joplin, Missouri interchange, Amtrak’s Sunset Limited, renovations for the Scottish Rite Theatre in Collingswood, New Jersey, the EarthPark indoor rainforest in Iowa, the Frank R. Lautenberg Train Station and the Camden-Philadelphia aerial tram project.

Waste of the Week, #1: THE FARM BILL
Waste of the Week, #2: BRIDGE TO NOWHERE
Waste of the Week, #3: BEAVER DAMAGE MITIGATION
Waste of the Week, #4: MONUMENTS TO ME
Waste of the Week, #5: N.C. TEAPOT MUSEUM
Waste of the Week, #6: JOPLIN, MO INTERCHANGE
Waste of the Week, #7: SUNSET LIMITED
Waste of the Week, #8: SCOTTISH RITE THEATRE
Waste of the Week, #9: INDOOR RAINFOREST
Waste of the Week, #10: FRANK R. LAUTENBERG TRAIN STATION
Waste of the Week, #11: CAMDEN-PHILADELPHIA AERIAL TRAM PROJECT
Waste of the Week, Special Edition: LAUTENBERG INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

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