screeching halt. had you been here in washington, do you think you would have done anything differently than what you saw and what will you try to do for future fiscal fights? there s probably going to be one welcoming you on your doorstep as you move here. yes. i can t say what i would have done. i m one of those people that had a side line seat like you did, but i did know right here in new jersey, i saw firsthand how so many people, tens and tens of thousands of new jerseyans were directly impacted, hurt, had their lives in many ways put in deep insecurity as a result of it. it s something that s just unacceptable. i think i agree with what the president said. there were no winners in this. there were just a lot of losers starting with the american people. i just came from a press conference where we brought yet another development project creating hundreds of jobs in newark, it was the governor and i together, the governor, a republican and me a democrat. we built new jersey ne
but this morning, he fired back at critics on wvlk radio in lexington. there was no meearmark. the army corps of engineers requested the olmstead lock funding. both the house and senate passed an authorization for it. every single member of the senate had a chance to review it and none asked for it to be taken out. mcconnell s negotiating counterpart, senate majority leader harry reid, agreed last night. this is not an earmark. it saves the money, the taxpayers lots of money. it turns out officials say stopping and restarting the project would have cost over $200 million if the authorization had not gone through. oh, and president obama had the same provision to continue the project in his 2014 budget. rather than talking about shutting down the government, it s time to talk about shutting down the waste. tom shatz is president of citizens against government waste. adding a provision to fund a dam opens the door for similar
actually made it into that finished product. great news. panda cam is back. more importantly, the federal government is open for business. but in order to get that compromise bill done, there were of course some shoehorned extras. some conservatives cried pork after a $2 billion authorization for the olmstead lock and dam project was added to the bill. we re here on the ohio river, on the olmstead lock and dam project. the money will continue to pay for this massive army corps of engineers project on the ohio river along kentucky s border. the senate conservatives fund, a political action committee, dubbed it the kentucky kickback, blaming the addition on kentucky s own senate minority leader, mitch mcconnell. i m pleased to get this kind of firsthand briefing of a project that i and others have been working on providing the funds for. mcconnell has long supported the dam project. here he is on a visit in 2009.
projects in the next c.r. this project has tripled in cost. it s behind schedule and if regular order had prevailed it s unclear whether that would have been funded at all in the normal appropriations bill. other additions to the bill to reopen the government include $175,000 which will be paid to the widow of senator frank lautenberg who died last year. such a payment is standard practice but it might be worth noting lautenberg was one of the wealthiest members of congress. roll call reported he was worth more than $50 million in 2011. finally, let s call this the edward snowden effect. the privacy and civil liberties oversight board will get $3.1 million. they are a white house oversight group set up to guard americans right to privacy against overreach by government cyberintelligence. senator john mccain did not mince words about some of these added provisions. he told the daily beast quote, these people are like alcohol s alcoholics. they can t resist taking a drink. it s ridicu