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Saturday, February 14, 2009
Tom Price and the $30 million mouse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Roswell) has become something of a YouTube guerilla lately, using video posted on the Internet to make his case against President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan.
But he became a genuine cable TV star on Friday by waving what looked to be a small, dead ball of fur on the floor of the U.S. House. (The prop was reportedly from a pet store.)
Price’s topic was the $787 billion stimulus bill.
“What’s in it? Have you read it? We found 30 million for mice. Got 30 million for mice. You can’t be serious. What a joke. $30 million for mice. Does that create jobs?” Price intoned. Some say he even looked a little cat-like, but you can judge for yourself.
Here’s a clip grabbed by Talking Points Memo:
But apparently the mouse funding is very much overblown, according to the Republican who first set the tale moving.
This from the San Jose Mercury News:
The tale began Wednesday, when Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, sent an e-mail to reporters and political leaders that noted Republican staff members have been asking federal agencies how they would spend the stimulus money.
“One response? Thirty million dollars for wetland restoration in the San Francisco Bay Area — including work to protect the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse,” wrote Steel.
The Washington Times then wrote a story citing Steel and claiming that $30 million for the mouse project is contained in the bill. The paper suggested the money was put there by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco. Blogger Matt Drudge, whose Web site receives 26 million hits a day, posted a link to that story.
News of the mouse roared through the cable TV news cycle. And Boehner’s spokesman was forced to clarify matters. The newspaper reported:
“There is no language in the bill that says this money will go to this project,” Steel told the Mercury News. “There are large pots of money in the bill that go to various agencies. One of those agencies said the salt marsh harvest mouse project is something we’d do if you gave us the money.”
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hamill agreed that funding for the mouse is not in the bill, and said she did not lobby for it to be on any list.
Then where did the $30 million figure come from, if it’s not in the bill? It turns out that $30 million is the total amount that the California Coastal Conservancy, a state agency, recommended more than a month ago to numerous federal agencies looking for lists of “shovel ready” projects as part of the stimulus bill planning.
The conservancy’s wish list included five major ongoing wetlands restoration projects totaling nearly 4,000 acres, said civil engineer Steve Ritchie, a Coastal Conservancy staff member who helped draw it up. And the federal Army Corps of Engineers included all five projects on its own list of possible ways to spend stimulus money.
The projects, which range from Napa County to Silicon Valley, involve moving levees, creating islands and converting former industrial salt ponds back to marshes. Each could begin by year’s end and would benefit dozens of species, including salmon, steelhead trout, ducks, egrets, and yes, the endangered mouse, Ritchie said.
