As he prepares to move from senator to governor, Sam Brownback is getting heat from conservative pundits for what some see as a self-serving earmark in the $1.2 trillion, 2,000-page omnibus spending bill before the lame-duck Congress — $40 million for the planned National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan. The legislation also includes more than $10 million in agriculture-related earmarks requested by Brownback, who nevertheless is viewed as unlikely to vote for the bill. The Corner, a National Review Online blog, put the NBAF first among “Ten Outrageous Earmarks,” ahead of $2.5 million for bike paths (in Illinois), $1 million for arthropod damage control, $350,000 for cool season legume research and $165,000 for maple research (in Vermont). Kansans understand the bipartisanship that went into the siting of the Department of Homeland Security’s $650 million NBAF project, which is essential for the protection of the nation and its agriculture industry. But Washington Examiner columnist Timothy Carver complained: “It’s a remarkable moment in the history of federal-state relations to see a governor-elect transfer money from 99 percent of the population to the state which he will govern in a few days.”
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