Last month, I submitted an email to Mr. Rogers' office, and asked the following question: "Rep. Rogers, could you please lead the way by disclosing every earmark you have ever requested in Congress?"
Well, I still haven't heard back from him yet -- remember, his office has a knack for being a little slow when it comes to responding to constituent inquiries -- but today WILX posted "a complete list of the appropriations project requests submitted by Congressman Mike Rogers (MI-08) for Fiscal Year 2008." They also made sure to mention...
that these projects have zero budget cost and do not constitute new spending as each application seeks to be included as part of the budgeted appropriations process. Projects are listed according to the bill they would be included in. Pursuant to House rules, Congressman Rogers has filed certifications with the Chairman and Ranking Member of the appropriate subcommittees stating that neither he nor his spouse have a financial interest in the project requests.Well, if that's true, good for him. A little transparency never hurt anyone.
Now, it should be pointed out that these are just requests made for fiscal year 2008. Remember, I asked for every earmark he ever requested in Congress, but hopefully Rep. Rogers will be sending me that information soon.
Anyway, here is the complete list of earmarks requested by Rep. Mike Rogers for FY2008:
LHHS:
1. $550,000 to Tomorrows Child/Michigan SIDS: Tomorrow's Child/Michigan SIDS is a non profit organization to preserve newborn lives and help families, through education, outreach and research. Funds would establish the Michigan Center for Infant Loss to address infant mortality.
2. $461,000 to Cleary University: Cleary University currently maintains partnerships with a local public school secondary consortium and a local public charter school to provide instruction for high school students. Funds would be used to upgrade equipment and further develop technology instruction for high school students.
3. $500,000 to Ingham Regional Medical Center: Funds would provide for health screening and educational outreach programs to combat obesity.
4. $500,000 to Burcham Hills Retirement Community. The project would fund the Burcham Hills Retirement Community’s establishment of the Career Ladder Nursing Program for Alzheimer's Patients.
5. $325,000 to Impression Five Science Center: Science Exhibit Impression Five allows visitors to explore, discover, and experience the scientific wonders of the world. Funds would allow for the creation of a new exhibit directed at understanding science presented through basic components of molecules and cells to more complex areas of genetics and health.
CJS:
1) $400,000 to the United Way of Southeast Michigan. Funding would support United Way programs that help recently released prisoners learn job skills and find employment.
2) $360,000 in funding for the Judicial Education Reference Information and Technical Transfer (JERITT) program, administered by Michigan State University, based in East Lansing, Michigan. Funding would allow MSU to upgrade the computer system JERITT uses. JERITT is a nationally-known program accessed by many other universities.
Defense:
1) $4,000,000 for a Base Security Systems project administered in Brighton, Michigan by Lowery Computer Products. The funding would allow Lowery computer to do proof of concept tests and perform a demonstration project on a proven, advanced security system that would allow the military to better track who and what is on base.
2) $2,250,000 for Advanced Composite Materials Research for vehicles, at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. This research will be enhance the effectiveness of US Forces through numerical simulation optimization and experimentally validated design of advanced hybrid vehicle components such as motors, power electronics, and control systems. The resulting technology will be the most advanced components available resulting in a competitive edge both for the U.S. military and U.S. industry.
3) $8,000,000 for the purchase of Battlefield Respirators (BRAV) by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, in Silver Spring Maryland. These respirators help injured soldiers in the field mitigate serious injury until full medical attention can arrive.
4) $1,000,000 for Disposable Bioreactors, to be developed by PBS Biotech in Okemos Michigan. Funding will assist in the development of simple, scaleable, and economical disposable bioreactor system which will provide more flexibility on manufacturing capacity and operation schedule without major capital investment, and simplify the regulatory compliance requirements by eliminating the cleaning steps between the batches.
5) $4,000,000 for Tactical Vehicle Cargo Restraint Nets, to be developed and produced by Network Enterprises Inc. in New Hudson, Michigan. The function of the LoadTamer Cargo Nets is to safely restrain mission ready cargo in trucks/trailers/combat vehicles/boats and helicopters from bouncing/shifting or blowing out of, or off, the cargo area thus ensuring mission accomplishment.
6) $2,500,000 for Advanced Hybrid Vehicle Technology research and Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. MSU would use funding to continue research to validate the design of advanced hybrid vehicle components.
7) $6,000,000 for Cold Weather Layering clothing, to be produced in Lansing, Michigan for servicemembers fighting overseas in cold climates.
8) $8,000,000 for Multiclimate Protection Clothing, to be produced in Lansing, Michigan for servicemembers fighting overseas in various climates.
9) $9,000,000 for Fleece Insulating Liners, to be produced in Lansing, Michigan for servicemen and women fighting overseas. Note: All three of these projects are performed by Peckham Corp, a company that employs the disabled in Lansing, MI.
10) $325,000 for the training of technology workers, to be done at Cleary University in Howell, Michigan. Cleary University, based in Livingston County is working to provide job training opportunities for Livingston county workers.
Energy:
1) $1,000,000 in funding for research and development of emerging technology to displace petroleum-based chemistry, by Intermediary BioChemicals, located in Okemos, Michigan
2) $2,000,000 in funding for research into biomass processing, advanced fermentation technologies and downstream process systems, by MBI International, located in Lansing, Michigan. This research would further efforts to reduce the production cost of biomass fuels.
3) $1,000,000 in funding for the implementation of Energy Conservation Measures (ECM) at Ingham Regional Medical Center, located in Lansing, Michigan. Funding would allow Ingham Regional Medical Center to reduce its overall energy consumption.
4) $3,000,000 in funding to conduct research that will assist the Department of Energy’s FreedomCar initiative, to be conducted at Michigan State University, located in East Lansing, Michigan. The Hybrid Electric Vehicle group at Michigan State University is working to develop technology which will lead to advanced hybrid components including motors, power electronics, and control systems, along with the capability of conducting numerical simulations for optimizing the designs of these systems. This effort will also include evaluation of the advantages of using selectively manufactured biofuels.
Financial Services:
1) $100,000 in funding for the Institute for Trade in the Americas, at Michigan State University College of Law, in East Lansing, Michigan. Funding will help advance the second phase of the Institute’s planned development. The planned addition of a web-portal to disseminate the Institute’s information and provide open access to the many resources of the law college will further accelerate the importance of dialogue on trade issues.
2) $325,000 in funding for the development of economics and personal finance courses at Cleary University, located in Howell, Michigan. The funds would be used to develop and provide on-line courses in economics and personal finance to be used by schools in the Washtenaw and Livingston Counties of Michigan.
3) $600,000 in funding for an Ex-offender Entrepreneurship program run by the United Way of Southeastern Michigan, located in Detroit, Michigan. The funds would be used to provide training classes in the areas of small business management, building a business on the internet, business marketing, credit education, franchise possibilities, selling and customer service. The initiative will work with the Wayne County Michigan Prisoner Reentry Pilot and its contracted sites to recruit potential entrepreneurs.
Interior:
1) $165,000 in funding for the Mill Pond Lane Bypass sanitary sewer project in Brighton, Michigan. The construction of the Mill Pond Lane By Pass Sanitary Sewer will allow for collection of downtown sewage and route it to another portion of the sanitary sewer system, freeing up capacity on the Second St. sewer main. The Mill Pond Lane By Pass Sanitary Sewer will allow for additional new economic development projects in downtown. The industrial area and other areas will benefit as well.
2) $1,000,000 in funding for Infrastructure Management and Planning for the Oakland County Drain commission, in Oakland County, Michigan. The rural villages in Michigan are faced with numerous failing septic systems and the inability for these systems to be reconstructed in kind. The towns and villages (as well as adjacent schools) will need to construct new public infrastructure that reflect the publics desire to retain the rural setting. Funding will assist the Oakland County Drain Commission in its mission to address these water, wastewater and drainage challenges.
Transportation
1) $2,500,000 Interchange construction at I-96 and Latson Road in Livingston County, Michigan.
2) $7,500,000 for Right-of-Way acquisition at Baldwin Road in Oakland County, Michigan.
3) $11,250,000 for the extension of the main runway at Capital City Airport, in Lansing, Michigan.
4) $1,040,000 for road construction at Cleary University in Howell, Michigan.
5) $5,415,996 for the purchase of buses and bus storage facility renovation at the Capital Area Transportation Authority (CATA) in Lansing, Michigan.
6) $1,200,000 widening of Sashabaw Road in Oakland County, Michigan.
7) $1,200,000 for the purchase of land and maintenance equipment for Clinton County Transit, located in Clinton County Michigan.
8) $100,000 for the purchase of buses and bus storage facility renovation for the Livingston Essential transportation Service (LETS) located in Livingston County, Michigan.
9) $400,000 for the construction of wheelchair ramps in the homes of disabled individuals who cannot afford to pay for them. The construction will be done by the United Way of Southeast Michigan, based in Detroit, Michigan.
10) $225,000 to construct a community recreation center on the campus of Cleary University in Howell, Michigan.
Agriculture:
1) $500,000 in funding for the research of Phytophthora capsici. The entity to receive funding for this project is Michigan State University located in East Lansing. The funding would be used for the research of phytophthora capsici a fungal pathogen that causes plants to rot which is a threat to the asparagus crop in Michigan.
Note: The following project requests did not include a dollar amount. These direct grants are part of larger, coordinated, on-going agricultural research projects overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
2) Funding for the research of Bovine Tuberculosis in fiscal year 2008 at MSU.
3) Funding for the research of improving Fruit Practices at MSU.
4) Funding for the Michigan Biotechnology Consortium at Michigan State University. The funding provides for a joint venture between MBI and Michigan State University to develop value added products and processes utilizing agricultural products and renewable resources.
5) Funding for the research of Armillaria Root Rot at MSU.
6) Funding for the research of improving Sustainable Agriculture at MSU.
7) Funding for the research of improving Wood Utilization Research at MSU.
7 comments:
Hey dipweed. the howell newspaper ran a story on this two weeks ago, and i personnally cut and pasted these earmarks on to your site on june 27.
Gee, you're a clever one.
If you actually bothered to read the follow-up to the comment you're referring to, you would've seen that the link you left didn't work.
Besides, this list represents one year of earmarks. Rogers has been in Washington for six and a half years now. Mike still owes us five and a half years worth of earmarks.
gee if you would read your own frickin blogg you would see that i cut and pasted the whole frickin thing on june 27
do you really expect rogers to provide you a hammer to bludgeon him with?
ok, here's where I'm coming from, and why I called you a dipweed. i'm a centrist left winger who is disgusted at rogers' craven politics and odious policies. he should be an ex-congressman.
which is why i was so excited to see this blog, at first
now, however, i'm frustrated by its weakness. on the earmarks for example, it was not very hard to find this list, since the end of june. cnn had it, howell press and argus had it. all you needed to do was google it and you could do some real watchdogging. but you don't notice unless its on a lansing tv station? you didn't even notice it was on your blog? when alerted by me, you didn't bother to do an internet search? i'm sorry, that's just weak. i want you to do better.
plus, your righteous indignation over rogers not releasing his entire list of earmarks over the past 7 years is ridiculous. first of all, he probably doens't have that list sitting around. it would take some time to gather, and its completely unrealistic to think he would devote staff time to doing that so that you can hammer him with it.
a more useful thing to do would have been to, two weeks ago, look at his list of earmark requests and notice, for example that a certain company named Lowry for whom rogers requested money recently made some large contributions to his campaign. or that cleary university, future site of an ann coulter speech, also would get a bunch of money.
so i'm sorry i called you a dipweed, but i wish you would get on the ball a little more.
anonymous,
Calling people "dipweed" is an excellent way to motivate people to do what you want them to do. Insulting them anonymously is also the mark of the brave.
If Rogers doesn't have his list of earmarks at the ready, that's not our problem. What is a problem is criticizing earmarks, attempting to take one away from another congressman, but using earmarks yourself. It's called hypocrisy.
Personally, I'm against all earmarks because they are a merely tool to reward supporters and buy off a constituency. They are not often the result of good policy decisions.
look, i apologized, ok? we all have the same goals here don't we?
i agree with everything you said, including the hypocracy of earmarks. but i still wish thisblog were more effective
You have to realize, Anonymous, that people here have lives and jobs. We can't spend every waking hour keeping tabs on Mike Rogers, but I think we do a pretty good job, considering what resources we have to work with. The DCCC has linked to our work numerous times.
Name-calling is the quickest way to have your opinions discounted. If you're so unhappy with the site, why don't you start your own blog?
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