MPT: Spreading the news

February 4, 2009
Advocacy Alert

RE: New Senate Amendment to Bar All Museums From Any Economic Recovery Funds

Recommended Action: Call your Senators TODAY and urge them to vote NO on the Coburn "Limitation of Funds Amendment No. 175." To reach your Senators, call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for your Senators' offices. This amendment may be offered as early as Wednesday, February 4.

Urgency:
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has introduced an amendment to prohibit any funds in the economic stimulus bill from going to any museum. The language of the amendment, (Amendment No. 175, as filed) is, "None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater, arts center, or highway beautification project, including renovation, remodeling, construction, salaries, furniture, zero-gravity chairs, big screen televisions, beautification, rotating pastel lights, and dry heat saunas."

Act Now: ACM stands with the American Association of Museums (AAM) and the entire museum community on this key issue impacting all museums. Click BELOW to use AAM's advocacy tools to locate your legislators:

http://www.congressweb.com/cweb4/index.cfm?orgcode=aam

Please call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and urge your Senators to vote NO on the Coburn "Limitation of Funds Amendment No. 175."

Thank you in advance for taking action.

MPT: In continuation of the last political post...

Through today's Cheers and Jeers post on Daily Kos, here's what Portland ME is going to use for some of the stimulus package. And let's put every item of Sen. Coburn's Ixnay List in bold, shall we?

• $5.2 million for city schools
• $12 million to eliminate combined sewer outflows
• $1.5 million to upgrade city computer and telephone systems
• $8 million to make the city's 40 buildings energy-efficient
• $1 million to build a bike path from Veterans Bridge to West Commercial Street
• $1.2 million to build a marine-related fire station
• $300,000 to hire more police officers
• $7 million to renovate the city's fire stations
• $4 million to renovate the public library
• $3.7 million for school building improvements
• $8 million for road construction projects
• $9.5 million for deep-water cruise ship berth at Ocean Gateway terminal
• $5 million to reconstruct the International Marine Terminal
• $23 million to expand the Portland International Jetport terminal
• $2 million to install energy-efficient lighting and make sidewalk improvements downtown
• $5 million to build a bicycle trail through the Bayside neighborhood and a pedestrian bridge over Franklin Arterial
• $800,000 for improvements to the Eastern Promenade

Hmm. Sure, there's a few that could wait, like bicycle trails and whatnot...but overall, I think this is a damn good shopping list. I think adding stuff that's vital to the community--say, upkeep of museums, creation of places for kids to go so they don't end up tooling around town with nothing to do and getting in trouble--isn't a bad idea. And let's face it--those like me who have driven all around New England most of our lives know for a fact that WE NEED BETTER INFRASTRUCTURE. Most of New England's roads are falling apart and most of the money that should have gone to it ended up being used for the Big Dig in Boston. So the so-called "highway beautification project" ixnay that you mention, Sen. Coburn? Try keeping a car in good shape up there in New England--it's pretty damn hard. Oh, and the South Main Street Bridge in my hometown that hasn't been fixed in over a decade because of budget constraints? Yeah, don't be surprised if the thing collapses and some people start suing.

So yeah...you might want to rethink that Ixnay list of yours, chief.