ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 8, 1991                   TAG: 9103080427
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

HOUSE VOTES TO AX GRANT FOR WELK'S TOWN

The House voted Thursday to withdraw a $500,000 grant to develop bandleader Lawrence Welk's North Dakota hometown, pork-barrel money that many lawmakers called a national embarrassment.

The rural development grant became a symbol for wasteful government spending after a North Dakota senator slipped it into the 1991 federal budget late in last year's congressional session.

"We no longer can afford projects that have little or no merit," said Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla. "Can anybody in this body argue that restoring the birthplace of Lawrence Welk is absolutely essential?"

An amendment to a supplemental appropriations bill that rescinds the grant passed 71-11.

- Associated Press 


 by CNB