Porker of the Month: Representative Mike Turner

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) Porker of the Month for leading the push to add more funds for the troubled and wasteful F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program.  The JSF has become the embodiment of waste at the Department of Defense.  The aircraft has been in development for two decades, and the total cost of the program has reached $1.7 trillion, making it the most expensive weapons system in U.S. history.  The JSF has even been called a “piece of [expletive]” by former Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and a “rathole” by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.).  Despite the program’s delays and cost overruns, Rep. Turner thinks that the F-35 is “modern and capable” and believes that throwing more money at the program by increasing production will somehow reduce the overall cost.  For wanting to send more money to the failed F-35 program, Rep. Turner is the June Porker of the Month.  Read more about the Porker of the Month.

CCAGW Continues Campaign to Stop Biden “Infrastructure” Scheme

CCAGW this month continued our successful Action Alert campaign targeting members of the Congress to demand they oppose President Joe Biden’s radical and wasteful $4 trillion “infrastructure” package, which contains hundreds of billions of dollars for programs that have nothing to do with roads, bridges, or physical facilities.  If the Biden plan becomes law, it will stand as the largest expansion of the federal government’s size and power in American history.  The new wasteful spending would be paid for with a massive and devastating tax hike on American families and businesses as the nation continues to recover from the pandemic.  The Action Alert campaign has delivered more than 18,000 letters to House and Senate offices to date.  Tell your U.S. Senators and Representative to oppose Biden’s “infrastructure” plan.

CAGW Hosts Webinar with FCC Commissioner Simington

On June 28, CAGW and WifiForward co-hosted a webinar with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Nathan Simington.  CAGW Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs Deborah Collier discussed with the commissioner how U.S. global leadership in telecommunications has been enabled by limited, light-touch government regulation, which has allowed significant freedom to development technologies like Wi-Fi, and how new technological advancements will require further policy initiatives. Deb and Commissioner Simington also discussed the opening of the 6 GHz spectrum band for unlicensed use in the United States and other countries. The webinar highlighted the important ways Wi-Fi technology will advance and the benefits this will bring to both the U.S. economy and individual internet users.  Watch the event.

CAGW’s Tom Schatz Speaks at a Briefing on Knoxville, TN Broadband Proposal

Also on June 28, CAGW President Tom Schatz and Business Forward hosted a briefing on the digital divide, the Knoxville Utility Board’s (KUB) proposal for taxpayer-funded broadband internet, and President Biden’s American Jobs Plan.  On June 29, despite CAGW’s objections, the Knoxville City Council voted to adopt a resolution allowing the KUB to spend $702 million to deploy a 1 Gbps service within the next seven years.  The plan will require a utility rate increase of 9 percent for all Knoxville city and county residents over three years, even if they do not use their broadband service.  The community already has three private internet service sector providers that provide that level of service, and one of the existing providers proposed a public-private partnership to expand its service to all unserved residents with a much smaller taxpayer investment and lower cost to ratepayers.  The KUB plan is likely to suffer the same fate as other costly and wasteful municipal broadband projects across the country, as CAGW outlined in its issue brief, The Folly of Government-Owned Networks.  Listen to the briefing.