House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will not have to wait for history’s verdict of whether her public service warranted memorialization.
Pelosi may well be the first sitting U.S. politician to direct federal funding to name a building after them. Tucked 610 pages deep in the $1.7 trillion 2023 omnibus spending package is a lulu for the octogenarian Democrat.
Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) included a photo of the bill’s page in a post to Twitter Tuesday. “The Federal building located at 90 7th Street in San Francisco, California, shall be known and designated as the ‘Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building,’” the legislative language declares.
“$65 million in two programs for Senator Leahy, and a federal building named for Nancy Pelosi,” Bishop commented in his caption above the photo. “Swamp gonna Swamp.”
The $65 million refers to the first year cost of renaming a Vermont program after Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT).
“There is authorized to be appropriated to the Administrator to carry out this section $35,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2027, to remain available until expended.” The money will be used to replace each instance of “Lake Champlain Basin Program” to the “Patrick Leahy Lake Champlain Basin Program” in the Federal Water Pollution Control Act.
The other $30 million is for the Patrick Leahy Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Program.
The N.C. Republican congressman reveals other “earmarks” included in the 4,155 page appropriations package.
“Here are just a handful of the many earmarks in the bill, including $3.6 million for the ‘Michelle Obama Trail,’” commented Bishop.
A later tweet from Bishop notes other large appropriations he questions including in the “must-pass” legislation to keep the government running.
“A few more earmarks: $477k for ‘antiracist’ training from the Equity Institute, $3 million for the LGBTQ+ museum in NYC, $1.2 million in ‘services for DACA recipients,’ and, $4.1 million in various career programs for one of the richest counties in the US (Fairfax),” Bishop added in a later Twitter post.
The N.C. congressman also noted funding for the creation of a Ukrainian park in Washington, D.C., and further funds for monuments for journalists and service animals who died in the line of duty.
