More Bad News from a Lame Duck President: Bush Wants to Steal Money from Salmon Fishermen for 2010 Census
I was appalled and shocked to read that President Bush is proposing to take $70 million from the $180 million salmon disaster relief funds included in the farm bill to pay for the census. My family is supported by commercial fishing, and following a poor dungeness crab season, fisherman along the West Coast are really hurting financially. Many captains can’t afford to make their boat payments, let alone their mortgages and skyrocketing fuel prices. Taking money from salmon fisherman equates to taking money from food stamps programs to fund the census. People’s livelihoods are at stake, and West Coast representatives and governors are reeling at Bush’s suggestion.
Why do we need more money for the census? The money is needed because of a failed contract with the Harris Corporation for the 2010 counts. The Census Bureau had planned to use handheld computers, but the Florida-based contractor went over budget. Now, we have to return to a paper-based census, which will cost taxpayers more money. Instead of trying to take money from fisherman to pay for a failed contract, shouldn’t we reevaluate the census itself? Is it really necessary to complete this population count every ten years? Could we modify the count to every 15 or 20 years?
West Coast governors and congress men/women are upset at Bush’s proposal. In an angry letter to the president, Democrats Mike Thompson, Peter DeFazio, Darlene Hooley, Anna Eshoo, Jim McDermott, Brian Baird, Doris Matsui, Lois Capps, Lynn Woolsey, Earl Blumenauer, David Wu, Rick Larson, Sam Farr and Jay Inslee wrote:
This proposal is especially egregious when you consider that your administration’s water policies on all of the Pacific Northwest’s major salmon rivers are the reason this disaster funding is needed in the first place. These failed policies have resulted in over 80,000 dead adult salmon in the Klamath River, record low returns to the Sacramento and Columbia/Snake River systems, two fishery disaster declarations issued by the Secretary of Commerce and two years of fishing closures impacting thousands of families and small business.
