Door is left open for N.Y. ‘Hippie museum’ cash
By Kevin Bogardus
The Hill
November 7, 2007
Funding for a controversial “Hippie museum,” co-sponsored by presidential front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), may still find a lifeline even though its earmark was stricken from a Senate appropriations bill earlier this year.
A conference report of two combined appropriations bills — Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (Labor-HHS) and the military construction-veterans’ affairs measure — removed a provision that would have explicitly cut funds for the museum, located in Bethel, N.Y. That clause was authored by earmark foe Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).
The conference agreement states there is no “general provision proposed by the Senate that prohibits the use of funds by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for the Bethel Performing Arts Center and makes certain other funding adjustments within the IMLS and Health Resources and Services Administration accounts.”
“It’s astonishing that the conferees removed the prohibition,” said John Hart, spokesman for Coburn. “Instead of a mini-bus or an omnibus, we may be looking at a groovy-bus strategy.”
According to a Democratic aide on the Senate Appropriations Committee, however, the Senate bill language, as originally drafted, would have prohibited the museum from applying for competitive grants from either IMLS or the Department of Education.
“They would have been the only museum specifically prohibited from competing. We did not believe that was the intent of the Coburn amendment,” said the aide.
The office of the project’s other co-sponsor, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), also said there were no funds for the museum in the bill’s conference report.
“The conference report does not contain any funding for the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts,” said Brian Fallon, spokesman for Schumer.
The Senate Appropriations aide added there is no intention to restore the earmark.
Hart disputed that: “Even if the bill does not provide funds for the museum, this bill opens a back door to fund the project. It is an earmark reincarnation.”
One million dollars had been slated for the earmarked project. Planned to open in the spring of 2008, the museum is an interpretation of the 1969 Woodstock music festival and “the legacies of the Sixties,” according to the Bethel center’s website. Bethel is the original site of the festival.
The museum’s funds soon became a flashpoint in the Senate earlier this fall. Coburn targeted the earmark by offering to transfer the museum’s $1 million in federal funds to help finance addition healthcare for pregnant women and children. The Senate accepted Coburn’s measure.
Clinton’s co-sponsorship of the project also became campaign fodder in the presidential race. Presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) released a campaign ad poking fun at the earmark, contrasting Woodstock with his service in Vietnam.
Clinton’s office did not return messages asking for comment for this story.
Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group, said the language completely erases the earmark from the record, but it also removes the funding prohibition.
“You could potentially ‘backdoor’ it, but it would be difficult. It would have to compete with other funding priorities,” said Ellis.
As of press time, House lawmakers expected to vote on the 853-page bill Tuesday night, even though members only received a copy late Monday night. Ellis contended that is little time for members to know what they are voting on.
“It was irresponsible when the Republicans did it. It is irresponsible now with Democrats doing it,” he said.
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