Spending Freeze or $50 Million New Park

Today the House Of Representatives passed H.R. 3726, a bill to establish the Castle Nugent Historic Site on St. Croix in the Virgin Islands.

In a floor statement, Rep. Doc Hastings made the following points:

First, this Congress enacted a law that authorized and directed the National Park Service to conduct a feasibility study on whether this site should be preserved, and if so, in what manner. We don’t have this report. Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars have been spent on this study, and yet this House is charging ahead, making a decision without having that study in our hands. This is wasteful and irresponsible...

With ten percent unemployment, millions of Americans without jobs, record budget deficits and public debt skyrocketing, now is not the time to spend up to $50 million of the taxpayers’ money to buy nearly 3000 acres of beachfront property on a Caribbean island. And on top of that, it’ll cost nearly $1 million a year to maintain...

On top of the cost of buying this beachfront Caribbean property and the yearly cost of maintaining it, we need to be honest about the backlog we have in caring for the land already owned by the federal government. There is $9 billion worth of needed repairs and maintenance on existing park lands. If we aren’t caring for what we already have, then Congress shouldn’t be making the problem worse...

I just guffaw when I hear these folks spewing concern about "fiscal discipline". They are in such a hurry to spend our money they won't even wait for the official study to justify the spending.