Sen. Thune avoids being named ‘Porker of the Year’

MITCHELL -- Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., has avoided being named "Porker of the Year" by the Washington-based Citizens Against Government Waste.

The group had named Thune its "Porker of the Month" in November for his work on behalf of the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad. He and three other lawmakers subsequently were picked as finalists for the year-end award.

Thune said the Federal Railroad Administration's rejection of the DM&E's request for a $2.3 billion federal loan might have helped him avoid the "Porker of the Year" award.

The DM&E had wanted the loan as part of the financing for a $6 billion project to build new rail line to the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and rehabilitate its existing track across South Dakota and southern Minnesota in order to haul low-sulphur coal and other commodities.

Actually, the group's award was announced three days before the loan rejection. Thune got the fewest votes in balloting that was conducted online.

He said that being nominated was representative of the opposition campaign that contributed to the rejection of the loan application.

"The sad part about it is, I felt through this whole thing that I've been operating in a parallel universe where the facts don't matter," Thune told the Mitchell Daily Republic.

The loan was a prime example of a pork barrel project, according to Citizens Against Government Waste.

The group said its members sent more than 10,000 letters to members of Congress in February, urging opposition to the loan request.

"The DM&E loan coasted under the radar until activists expressed outrage over its financial, economic and safety risks," Tom Schatz, Citizens Against Government Waste president, said in a news release.

Thune noted that the railroad was requesting a loan, not a grant.

The DM&E project could eliminate bottlenecks in the Powder River Basin, reduce energy costs and shipping costs for farmers and create competition for agricultural shipping, he said.

"These are chronic problems, and this would have been a great way to solve it," he said.

The "Porker of the Year" award went to Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va. "for abusing his position on the House Appropriations Committee by securing millions of dollars in earmarks," Citizens Against Government Waste said on its Web site.

On the Net: http://www.cagw.org