Inevitably when Members of Congress roll out their earmark requests we’re presented with a parade of we-couldn’t-make-this-stuff-up moments. This year is no different.
Representative Pramila Jayapal has provided the latest in a series of wasteful boondoggles from Capitol Hill. Jayapal wants to spend $300,000 to put urinals in women’s rooms in a theatre in Seattle. No. Seriously:
This request will help the Seattle Rep bring the Theatre’s primary and largest performance space up to current standards for the Americans with Disabilities Act and provide restrooms accessible to transgender and gender non-conforming people.
This earmark embodies the problems with pork-barrel spending that opponents of earmarks have discussed for years - wasteful spending, local projects funded by DC, and federal taxpayers forced to fund programs that violate their values.
We don’t know whether Congress will elect to fund this project in their Transportation spending bill this year, but we can hope Congress has the good sense to flush this request.