WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) released the following statement about the appropriations bills package the Senate considered today.

“This spending package is disappointing—it comes more than five months into the fiscal year, is jammed full of earmarks and the left’s political priorities and fails to move towards reducing our national debt. This is not fiscal conservatism, and, as such, I cannot vote for it.” 

Several unnecessary earmarks hidden within the appropriations bills are:

• $3.5 million for Michigan’s Thanksgiving Parade;
• $1 million for an environmental justice center in New York City;
• $1 million for gardens in San Francisco;
• $4 million for a waterfront walkway in New Jersey;
• $1 million for an electric vehicle car share for public housing residents in Los Angeles;
• $4.1 million for a Fire Station in Quincy, MA - (a town of 100,000 with a median income of over $90,000); and
• $4 million for the Wright Factory Business Park attempting to turn the plane factory site into a “green space.”