Congress Earmarks $4 Million for La Raza

If Rep. Murtha is worried about the troops being under financed maybe he should find out which of his buddies put this piece of nonsence in the budget.

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), Spanish for “the race,” will get its latest grant through an appropriations bill passed by Congress on November 18. The Joint Explanatory Statement of HR 3058, available on the House’s Rules Committee website lists 1,100 plus earmarks in the bill, including La Raza’s grant under the Housing and Urban Development Department’s Self-Help and Assisted Ownership Programs. Under this account La Raza will receive four times as much as the Special Olympics, which won a $1-million earmark.

La Raza is the nation’s largest Hispanic advocacy organization. It was adamantly opposed to the REAL ID Act, which will prevent states from issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens if they want them to be usable for federal purposes. It is also opposed to the CLEAR Act, which would grant state and local law enforcement agencies that wish to do so the authority to enforce federal immigration laws.

Americans are generous enough that we don't need the federal government handing out money to nonprofit organizations. This one is particularly onerous since it advocates open borders and other public benefits for non citizens including those here illegally. They also what to make it impossible to find illeagals by lobbying against ID verification laws.

The $4-million grant in this year’s housing bill, which is the fifth in a series of similar congressional earmarks, wasn’t expected, La Raza Senior Vice President Charles Kamasaki said. “This was a somewhat unusual year in that this earmark was not specifically requested,” he explained. He also said the funding is targeted primarily toward a La Raza subsidiary that has made over $40 million in loans to NCLR affiliates and other community based groups such as charter school facilities, heath clinics, day-care centers and affordable housing developments.

So some politician snuck this in without even being asked to do so. What kind of lunacy is in control of congress? I think I'll start a nonprofit and just sit back and wait for some congressman to pump $4 million into my bank account. I'll even use it for "housing" just like La Raza does.

One person who would like to know how La Raza’s $4-million earmark got into the bill is Rep. Charlie Norwood (R.-Ga.) who, with Rep. Pete Sessions (R.-Tex.), sponsors the CLEAR Act. Jennifer Hing, communication director for Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R.-Mich.) who is chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that handled the bill, said the Senate inserted the earmark.

Norwood said he was told the money was stricken from the House version of the bill because NCLR has not used the money for housing they received last year.

Which means a Senator is patting himself on the back for being so generous with taxpayer money. Let's hope Charlie Norwood gets to the bottom of this soon.

One possible culprit is Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) who sits on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that handled the bill carrying the earmark. In 2001, Reid sent a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee requesting $5 million for La Raza’s housing programs. That same year Reid also received NCLR’s Capital Award for “his commitment to advance legislation priorities of the Latino Community.” In gratitude, Reid told NCLR, “La Raza is like the biblical David, fighting all these Goliaths.”

Good old Harry seems to have his own version of habitat for humanity going at our expense.

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