Swingin' Cash

Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, substituted Utah's anti-abortion bill today. But while he stepped back the abortion illegalization measure he also managed to swing an extra 1.3 million for some of his favorite projects.

Early Childhood intervention was, according to Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfiled, funded in his committee nearly to the full amount requested. Urquhart, however, seems to have wanted a bit more for the program.

Urquhart never the less managed to move the bill from an inevitable constitutional challenge to a trigger bill (waiting on Roe v. Wade's overturn) and then re-direct the money for the defense of the law to early childhood and childhood deformation programs.

I don't judge the man for the move one way or another. I was nevertheless impressed how he managed to use the substitution one of the most controversial bills that legislators will look at this year to swing some cash the way of a cause he believed in.

And I thought that pork only came in the form of amendments and burritos from Cafe Rio. (I suppose the Cafe Rio thing is an irony in and of itself as imigrants work there but don't get tons of pork - unless the owner gives them some after close.)