Huge spending bill, lots of little quirks
Pet-peeve provisions cover stray cats, false facades, and yes, even a porn ban
Congress will vote Friday on a provision to block federal permits for companies that round up stray cats and dogs and sell them for research. It is one of dozens of odd provisions included in the massive year-end spending bill, which provides $1.1 trillion in federal spending but specifies many activities that may not be paid for out of that bankroll. It is akin to a parent saying “Here’s your allowance. Don’t buy drugs with it.”
Here are some of our favorites: CATS & DOGS Congress doesn’t want the Department of Agriculture to issue or reissue licenses “to class B dealers who sell dogs and cats for use in research, experiments, teaching, or testing.” This provision addresses a concern that companies are providing labs with “randomly sourced” animals. That is: They are scooping up strays or possibly even swiping household pets and selling them. KEEPING ACORN DEAD Remember ACORN? Congress does. The community organizing/ voter registration group was the target of a sting video by conservative activist James O’Keefe and accused by conservatives of helping clients break the law. The group was never charged in that case, but Congress cut off its federal funding, and the group closed its doors in 2010. Nevertheless, the spending bill contains a provision barring any federal funding to “the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.” NO FALSE FRONTS During the restoration of the Supreme Court, workers toiled behind a giant sheet with a life-size photo of the building. The bill includes this passage: “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used for scrims containing photographs of building facades during restoration or construction projects performed
by the Architect of the Capitol.” NSFW I thought we were clear on this: Don’t watch porn at work. The spending bill contains some variation of this language: “None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to maintain or establish a computer network unless such network blocks the viewing, downloading and exchanging of pornography.”
This language has been in the spending bills for years. Nevertheless, the EPA inspector-general found this year that workers there were watching porn on government computers, raising some questions about just how effective these spending bans are.