Just before the 117th Congress adjourned a day before Christmas Eve, members gave us plenty of good cheer to start the new year. We’ll be playing with, and paying for, those Yule presents doled out in 2022 for much of this year.
The pre-Christmas goodies list was from the 2023 Omnibus Funding Bill, a $1.7 trillion spending package more commonly known as “pork,” Congress adopted. Our elected officials lick their chops when it comes to the wide range of projects included in these annual omnibus spending bills.
Once known as congressional “earmarks,” pork-barrel projects have been around for decades. Congressmen and women, along with senators, crow about bringing home the bacon for their states and congressional districts.
Republicans don’t like pork projects, contending your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be stuck with the big-bucks tab years down the road, and they certainly may.
To that end, 201 Republicans voted against the omnibus bill, although nine voiced in favor. Some even voted against the measure, which included funding for projects they still wanted for their congressional districts. That’s what congressional log rolling is all about, trading favors, a tradition that dates to the republic’s founding.
Fortunately for “anti-spending” House GOPsters, more Democrats voted in favor. President Joe Biden signed the bill, which isn’t chump change, while on Christmas break in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Some districts across the nation may receive money to purchase fire engines, or funds to rebuild a church damaged by fire, or streetlight improvements, library expansions, swimming pools. All are fair uses of omnibus spending funds.
Yet, if every congressional district is going to get “free” money from Uncle Sam, we should be getting our fair share or more, don’t you think? After all, Lake Countians pay some of the highest taxes in the nation.
One of the Democrats heartily supporting the annual spending bill was U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider of Deerfield. Funding for 15 of the congressman’s community project funding recommendations were included in the for-all spending plan.
“Essential projects across Illinois will be started, generating economic growth, improving access to mental health services, reducing flooding, and enhancing public safety,” the congressman said in a statement. He said the “bill clearly demonstrates the values and priorities of this 117th Congress: lowering costs for American families, ensuring health care coverage for our children, strengthening our communities and defending our democracy.”
He said his congressional requests “represent solutions to the district’s largest problems and were carefully chosen from a large field of applicants.” County communities benefiting from the projects range from Beach Park to Fox Lake, to Lake Bluff, to Libertyville, to North Chicago, to Round Lake, to Waukegan. They encompass grants to tackle water projects, road work, economic development, gun violence, flooding, climate change, education, homelessness and bike safety.
Additionally, the bill provides for a variety of local initiatives championed over the year by Schneider. One of them is funding for nuclear closure communities to help areas like Zion that shoulder the legacy of abandoned nuclear waste.
Another is significant funding to protect the Great Lakes, support the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and enhance federal protections against invasive species like Asian carp, aka copi, from making its way into Lake Michigan. Also, much funding of veterans programs.
The omnibus legislation even contains funding for the U.S. Capitol Complex to create a dedicated interfaith prayer space for use by staff and the public for prayer and meditation. Schneider requested this space be established. He explained there is an interfaith space for use by members of Congress and senators, but currently there is no such area for use by the public within the U.S. Capitol Complex.
Then there are those requests which transcend monetary projects. One such Schneider requested is renaming the Grayslake Post Office for Army Ranger Joey Dimock.
Dimock, 21, died in 2010 while in Afghanistan. He grew up in Wildwood which receives mail service through the Grayslake postal facility on Commerce Drive, and has Grayslake’s 60030 ZIP code.
That small portion of the omnibus bill may not have high value when it comes to bringing the bucks back to Lake County. But it certainly remembers a fallen son of the county. That is priceless.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
Twitter: @sellenews