Amendments Forbidding Defense Dollars From Being Spent on Coal Earmark and Green Energy Mandates Adopted
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The Huffman-McClintock amendment strikes an unnecessary, expensive and wasteful half-century old earmark that requires the U.S. military base in Kaiserslautern, Germany to buy an expensive specific type of coal from Pennsylvania. The provision has cost taxpayers millions of dollars and the amendment frees up funds that the military needs to defend the nation.
The 36 other U.S. military installations in Germany operate effectively, and at a cost savings, without being forced into the same arrangement as Kaiserslautern. The Huffman-McClintock amendment was adopted by a bipartisan vote of 252 – 179.
The House also adopted a separate amendment authored by Congressman McClintock to save an estimated $7 billion by stopping expenditures for the Administration’s “green energy” programs.
“At a time when we are defending the nation both from external threats and a steadily mounting national debt, there is no excuse for wasting money in the defense budget,” Congressman McClintock said. “It is gratifying that the House is ending this wasteful spending, no matter how long-standing or well-intentioned it may be.”
H.R. 2685 – FY16 Department of Defense Appropriations Act was passed by the House by a vote of 278 – 149 and next goes to the Senate.
The Congressman’s remarks in support of both amendments are attached.
Anthracite Coal Amendment
Department of Defense Appropriations Bill
Mr. Chairman:
I do not support the war on coal waged by this administration and my friends on the left.
I DO support the war on waste, and I support this amendment based on that fiscal imperative.
Just a few weeks ago, so-called defense hawks demanded spending well in excess of budget caps because, they said our defense spending had been stretched to the breaking point.
In light of those warnings, I find it inexcusable that these scarce defense dollars would be so recklessly squandered in a corrupt earmark from a disgraced and deceased Pennsylvania Congressman that dates back to 1961.
That earmark requires that one – and only one – American Air Force base in Kaiserslautern, Germany must purchase 9,000 tons of Pennsylvania anthracite coal a year at a grossly inflated price estimated to be $20 million (or about 80 percent more expensive than commonly used coal). And that doesn’t include the cost of transporting this overpriced coal across the Atlantic Ocean and halfway across the European continent – a cost that is absorbed elsewhere in the Air Force Budget.
The excuse is that we would otherwise be dependent on Putin, but that doesn’t hold water – no other U.S. military base in Europe is required to buy this coal – only Kaiserslautern.
The Pentagon and successive Presidents have consistently protested this waste – but these protests have fallen on deaf ears in Congress – even while we’re told that our defense spending has been cut to the bone.
If we don’t change the spending trajectory of this government, the Congressional Budget Office warns that in the next ten years, just paying the interest on the national debt will exceed our entire defense budget. That makes rooting out waste like this a national defense imperative.
Green Energy Executive Orders
Department of Defense Appropriations Bill
(amendment was approved by voice vote)
Mr. Chairman:
This amendment forbids scarce defense dollars from being spent to fund three executive orders and several other provisions of law that require the military to squander billions of dollars on so-called “Green Energy.”
The House adopted this amendment by a voice vote last year.
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