Exploratorium Gets No Love From GOP

Next up on the Senate Republican earmark hit list: a $300,000 request from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for a San Francisco science museum called Exploratorium.

Get ready to hear a lot more about this item as Republicans market their side of the appropriations story this week. The project hits two nerves of the conservative funny bone — Pelosi and San Francisco — and the Senate GOP Conference plans to play it up as an example of Democratic overspending.

“Should federal taxpayers be subsidizing a wealthy city’s museum during a time of war?” asks a messaging document being circulated among Republican staff members. 

It will also be featured on a website, src.senate.gov/porkreport/, that the conference plans to unveil Tuesday, and in floor speeches and press releases, said Ryan Loskarn, the conference spokesman. A Pelosi spokesman, Nadeam Elshami, hit back Monday.

“Why would Republicans want to stand in the way of ensuring that students in underserved areas have access to the best qualified teachers?” Elshami asked. “This initiative supports the professional development of the K-12 science teachers in the Bay Area, with a particular focus on the needs of underserved schools with large minority student populations.”

The funding was added to a spending bill for Labor, Health and Human Services and Education — a measure that has since been combined with a bill funding veterans and military construction.

The package is scheduled to be considered this week.

Republicans argue that the museum is not lacking resources — it received more than $33 million in federal funding through grants and earmarks in the past six years, according to FedSpending.org — and taxpayers outside the Bay Area should not be subsidizing the program, no matter how worthy it may be.

It’s not the first time this earmark has been singled out.

In July, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) offered an amendment to strip it from the bill.

Rep. Dave Obey (D-Wis.) came to the defense of Pelosi and her earmark. “There is nothing in the world more deadly than a dull science teacher,” he said on the floor.

“I’ve had some rather dull ones as well,” Flake responded. “But this museum has $12 million in revenue. This is $300,000 additional dollars given by the federal government. Why are we doing this? It’s not because it’s needed. It’s because somebody can.”

The amendment failed, 341-89.