Sunday, April 1, 2007 | 7:32 a.m.
WASHINGTON - Republicans have been badgering Democrats for weeks over the $20 billion in pork slipped in the Iraq war bill, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was unbowed. No sooner did the legislation pass the Senate than Reid broadcast the gains for Nevada.
Tucked in the $120 billion Iraq bill are extras: $15 million for Nevada and other Western states to fight the crop-damaging Mormon cricket, $22.7 million for geothermal research, some of which will likely go to UNR, and $4.7 billion for Nevada and other states that count on federal money from public lands for rural schools.
Reid has never been one to shy from getting Nevada its share of earmarks, the special spending requests slipped into appropriations bills. His office defended the cash for Nevada - even as the Senate's anti-pork forces denounced the spending as "blood money" being carried on the backs of the troops.
"This is emergency funding ; that's what it's for," Reid spokesman Jon Summers said of the bill. "The bulk of the money goes to Iraq and Afghanistan, but it covers other emergency funding as well. Mormon crickets are a huge problem in Nevada."
President Bush has vowed to veto the Iraq bill, leaving any potential financial boost for Nevada in doubt.
Karl Gawell, executive director the Geothermal Energy Association, said Reid's work is a push back against the Bush administration's attempts to zero out geothermal research in the West.
"This is not pork," Gawell said. "This is a legitimate policy dispute between the administration and Congress."
The Energy Department cut $20 million for geothermal energy research last year, saying it preferred to spend its money on emerging technologies. Geothermal research labs primarily in the West are to be shut down in coming months.
Lisa Shevenell, director of UNR's Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy, said her funding will last until September. She is counting on $1.5 million in federal money.
Similarly, the funding Reid and other senators restored for rural schools comes after Congress and the administration could not agree on a funding source last year and the program expired. In this bill, Nevada schools would get $6.5 million in 2007.
The legislation also would fully fund a program that pays Nevada and other states in lieu of property taxes on federally owned land. Nevada would receive $20 million in 2007, up from $14.1 million in 2006.
The House and Senate loaded up the Iraq bill with extras to help win support from lawmakers on the fence, drawing outrage from some Republicans. Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign criticized the "reckless spending" unrelated to the war. Still, he persuaded the Senate to reroute a $15 million allocation for an overseas cultural program to be put toward fighting sexual predators.
"He's saying, 'Look, if we're going to spend this money, let's spend it on something that's a little more worthwhile,' " Ensign spokesman Tory Mazzola said.
The Nevada agriculture department is counting on money to fight the Mormon cricket, a thumb long pest that has brought almost $40 million in damage to Nevada since the bands started invading the state eight years ago.
State entomologist Jeff Knight says Nevada needs to do survey and eradication work. The state would split the money with Utah and Idaho. "Right now we've got reports of crickets from ... California to Utah."
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