Homeland Security grant spending questioned amid budget woes - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Homeland Security grant spending questioned amid budget woes

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Homeland Security Department money intended for counterterrorism purposes has paid for an underwater robot in a Midwest city with no major rivers or lakes nearby, a hog catcher in rural Texas and a fish tank in a small Texas town.

According to a congressional report highlighting what it describes as wasteful spending, numerous purchases under the department's Urban Area Security Initiative are inappropriate for a government with a $16 trillion debt.

Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn says misspending tax dollars in the name of security "weakens our already precarious economic condition."

Coburn's 54-page report outlines what he says is wasteful spending that he blames on lax oversight at Homeland Security and a willingness by Congress to overlook program problems in favor of making sure money gets to local areas.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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