Coburn Report Shows Curious Tech Spending
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, last week released a report documenting what he believes is absurd federal spending by members of Congress in 2008. One tech-related example highlighted in Coburn's paper is the allocation of $2.5 million for a project to build a "high altitude airship" that the Pentagon no longer wants.
Described by Popular Science, the HAA is a blimp-like aircraft intended to float 12 miles above the earth and provide spy surveillance -- a creation of Lockheed Martin, which was awarded a $150 million contract in 2006 by the Missile Defense Agency to produce a fleet of 10. The agency scrapped the project but contractors fought back, according to Coburn's report. The HAA facility in Akron, Ohio, was sold to lawmakers as a "jobs program," which kept it alive for an extra year, the report stated.
Other tech programs highlighted in Coburn's report include: a Ohio program to provide voicemail for the homeless ($15,000); FCC-sponsored NASCAR events to promote the digital TV transition ($350,000); a 3-D space theater in Indiana ($2.4 million); and a California study of American and Chinese videogame habits ($100,000).
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