FULCHER: A missed opportunity

The Invest in America Act, funding infrastructure (HR 3684) includes a provision providing members of the House to request specific “earmarks” for funding of transportation projects within their state. The bill provides $547 billion in funding for transportation.

Almost $15 billion was allocated to earmarks requested by House members who were asked to provide a list of transportation projects they were requesting for their District. Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson submitted six specific projects in southern and eastern Idaho for consideration. Four totaling $17 million were approved by the House Committee and are now earmarked in the bill for funding.

Our representative, Russ Fulcher, failed to submit any requests for transportation projects within his district.

Clearly, the House Committee, although chaired by Democrats, approved transportation earmarks for districts represented by Republicans. With our transportation needs in North Idaho and Kootenai County, we can only wonder why Rep. Fulcher, who represents U.S., failed to even submit a list of requested earmarks to help meet our increasing transportation needs.

Rep. Simpson said it best: “It is important to note that eliminating any one of those projects (that I submitted) would not have reduced federal spending by one penny — the money would have instead gone to another project in a different state…”

Thank you, Rep. Simpson.

LEN CROSBY

Post Falls