http://www.truthout.org/article/bush-tries-raid-salmon-disaster-fundsSunday 15 June 2008
by: Dan Bacher, t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Professional salmon fisherman Rusty Boro steers his boat in the dock in Half Moon Bay, California. The Bush administration is attempting to take back almost half the money it originally alloted to California and Oregon fisherman in this year's farm bill.
West Coast representatives and leaders of fishing groups are outraged over an attempt by the White House to yank $70 million in disaster funding from commercial and recreational fishermen in order to pay for the 2010 US Census.
The Bush administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Monday, June 9, sent a proposal to Congress to amend the president's budget and take back $70 million of the $180 million West Coast representatives had put into the farm bill for disaster assistance for fishermen devastated by fishing closures off California and Oregon and in Central Valley rivers.
West Coast Democrats reacted to the proposal by sending an angry letter to President Bush. They called "unconscionable" his proposal to deny the disaster funding to fishermen and use it to pay for a failed contract with the Harris Corporation. Harris, assigned to do the 2010 Census, was forced due to serious mismanagement to abandon its plans for using handheld computers to conduct the census and will have to conduct a costly paper census.