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January 18, 2006
Former congressman decries abuses of homeland security spending
In an opinion piece today in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, former U.S. attorney and congressman Bob Barr criticized various abuses of homeland security grants to states. He cited numerous examples of what he deemed wasteful, pointless spending and speculated that a new formula for doling out federal taxpayer dollars to cities for homeland security projects would not be very effective.
Barr took issue with the following spending projects by states:
- $250,000 for "new, state-of-the-art, air-conditioned garbage trucks" in Newark, N.J.;
- new leather jackets for Washington DC police officers;
- $63,000 for a decontamination unit stored in a warehouse in rural Washington state because there is no hazardous materials team to use it;
- nearly $100,000 for a "training course in incident management" in Michigan that "no one attended."
Posted by Kathleen Miller at January 18, 2006 10:14 AM
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