Lugar seeks $3.5 million for local hybrid vehicle

By Sylvia A Smith

The Journal Gazette

WASHINGTON - Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., has asked Congress to set aside $3.5 million to help Navistar develop a hybrid hydraulic vehicle at the truck company's Fort Wayne plant.

The request is one of 31 he submitted to the Appropriations Committee as it begins weighing the lawmakers' bids for pet projects in their states.

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., has said he will not request money for projects he singles out. The process, often called "earmarks," has come under increasing criticism as the number of requests has multiplied and as the federal deficit expanded.

Lugar said the money for Navistar would help hydraulic hybrid vehicle technology so they could be made faster for the Army.

"Deployment of such vehicles would allow the Army to improve fuel economy and performance and reduce the lifecycle costs of military vehicles," a description on Lugar's web page says.

For the first time, members of Congress are required to post their requests on their web sites.

Lugar submitted 18 northeast Indiana projects to the Appropriations Committee subcommittees. One subcommittee's deadline, however, is later this week, so Lugar's full list is likely to be larger.

In addition to the Navistar project, Lugar asked the committee to approve:

$140,000 for Trine University in Angola to set up online engineering classes
$250,000 for Elkhart to buy commuication equipment for squad cars.
$2.5 million to extend County Road 17 in Elkhart County to the Toll Road.
$1 million to help Manchester College develop a pharmacy program.
$3 million for Alcoa in Auburn to develop lightweight survivable structures for military vehicles.
$1,399,849 for downtown curb, sidewalks and ramps in Angola.
$2.5 million for the National Tooling and Machine Foundation to provide training for the metalworking industry.
$340,000 so Huntington County can pay for an environmental study on the proposal to extend the Hoosier Heartland industrial corridor to the Interstate 69-Interstate 469 intersection.
$450,000 to help the University of St. Francis buy equipment for its Crown Point nursing lab satellite campus.
$200,000 to help the American Red Cross of Northeast Indiana expand its building.
$149,800 for science lab equipment at the University of St. Francis.
$228,700 for computers at the University of St. Francis library.
$596,057 to buy palm and fingerprint identification equipment for the Fort Wayne Police Department.
$909,300 for science lab equipment at Manchester College.
$522,500 for a large snowblower for Fort Wayne International Airport.
$750,000 for Elkhart's storm water overflow project.
$1.5 million to widen Prairie Street in Elkhart.

In all, Lugar asked for $254.6 million to pay for projects on the wish lists of Hoosier cities, hospitals, schools and businesses.

His requests are among thousands that members of Congress are submitting to the committees that allocate the portion of the federal budget that's not already spoken for. Mandatory spending for areas such as Medicare and farm subsidies takes up about two-thirds of the federal budget.

Most of the projects won't be approved as Congress writes the legislation that pays for the federal budget for 2010.

sylviasmith@jg.net

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