More HR-1... who wrote this shite?

I'm curious... who actually writes these proposed bills? I never really thought about it until now. But I'm sure the congresspeople themselves don't sit down and write out all the details. So, who does? Shouldn't we know? We do pay these people in a round-about way. I'm into a bunch of legal jargon of the bill that I don't understand, and that's why I'm bringing this up.

Okay... let's get to the money, baby! This is a summary only and doesn't contain all of the spending. I have a job and two children. My job isn't in the U.S. congress... if it were, then I would have every last detail for you fleshed out here....

Department of Agriculture:
For an additional amount for ‘‘Agriculture Buildings
and Facilities and Rental Payments’’, $44,000,000, for
necessary construction, repair, and improvement activities:
For an additional amount for ‘‘Buildings and Facilities’’, $209,000,000, for work on deferred maintenance at Agricultural Research Service facilities.
FARM SERVICE AGENCY SALARIES AND EXPENSES
For an additional amount for ‘‘Salaries and Expenses,’’ $245,000,000, for the purpose of maintaining and modernizing the information technology system. For an additional amount for ‘‘Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations’’, $350,000,000, of which $175,000,000 is for necessary expenses to purchase and restore floodplain easement
WATERSHED REHABILITATION PROGRAM
For an additional amount for ‘‘Watershed Rehabilitation Program’’, $50,000,000, for necessary expenses to carry out rehabilitation of structural measures.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
$5.8 billion for consolidated farm and rural development act.

RURAL HOUSING SERVICE
$22,129,000,000 for loans to section 502 borrowers, of which $4,018,000,000 shall be for direct loans,and of which $18,111,000,000 shall be for unsubsidized guaranteed loans.

RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE
DISTANCE LEARNING, TELEMEDICINE, AND BROADBAND
For an additional amount for the cost of broadband loans and loan guarantees, as authorized by the RuralElectrification Act of 1936 (7 U.S.C. 901 et seq.) and for grants, $2,825,000,000


OK... I'm going to stop quoting here and add my own shit.
$1Billion dollars to the U.S. Census bureau. Wouldn't we do fine without a Censuse bureau?
Why do we need to spend a billion dollars here?

$35 Million for National Telecommunications and Information Administration. More administration... come on! This is to identify and track availability and adoption of broadband services within each state. Are you kidding me? Who comes up with this?

$2.825 Billion (yes, billion) for broadband deployment grants. Didn't we do just fine before broadband? Yes, my job depends upon it, but my in-laws and my mother... not so much.
Oh.. this includes some junk about the conversion analog. I don't need cable and neither do you. In fact, I'm calling my cable company on Monday to cancel.


$3 billion for state and local law enforcement assistance. Love law enforcement (hi Dad!) so I'm not going to say anything here.. have some thoughts but can't state them for fear of retribution from family:) Oh... here we go, another $1Billion for community oriented policing services. What the heck does that mean?

$400Million for NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

Holy crap... I'm only 55 pages in. How much more can there be. I'm guessing a lot of waste in education -- no, I'm not saying education is a waste of time, just that education bureaucracies now how to waste money.

There seems to be about $1.5 billion spent on defense. $2 billion spent on the Army Corp of Engineers. $500Million spent for water reclamation and water related resources. $18.5 billion for Energy programs. $500million for Defense Environmental cleanup.
Federal building fund, $7.7 billion (yeah, you read that right).

Oh, and isn't this nice of them... a whopping $426million for small business loans. How sweet that they thought of the little guy. Oh... there are a bunch of pages of legalese regarding such loans... so beware. Almost 20 pages, whereas, most of the other government programs had 1 or 2 pages. So watch out little guy.

$500Million for aviation security. I hate to fly anyway, so let's cut that out:)

Wow, how generous... $200Million for emergency food and shelter.

Road and bridge repair gets a whopping $325 million in the bill. I would have thought this was one of the priorities, but I guess the congress things otherwise. I was thinking Roosevelt with the stimulus, but the government had other ideas.

Shit... wildlife services gets almost as much as the road and bridge repair -- $300million! Well... that seems wise.

Oh... let's not forget the national mall. Gotta spend at least $200 million here.

And then we need another $200 million for Geological surveys.
And then there is the $8.4 billion tribal assistance. Don't we have casinos on almost every block now?

Wildland fire management $850 million. I'm cool with that.

$550 Million for Indinal health services.

Yes, we must have $50 million for the national endowment of the arts. Because, right now, I am really needing the arts to sustain me. Really. Oh... I still have to pay $12 admission and $4 for a soda????

$4Billion for the dept. of labor.

$2.18 billion for Health and Human Services

I'm 156 pages in and I'm done for tonight. Please, comment! I'll post more details tomorrow. I'm not an economist and trying not to judge. I just want to hold everyone accountable. I was happy to see Obama elected but worried that he would have a congress of the same party so there wouldn't be many checks. I'm afraid that there is too much of a disconnect between Washington and the folks in middle America. I'm afraid there is going to be too much waste, so that is why I'm trying to read this stuff.