H.R. 2996 provided fiscal year 2010 funding for the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. This was a vote on amendment to the bill offered by Rep. Campbell (R-CA). The amendment would have eliminated one million dollars, which had been earmarked to fund the installation of a municipal water line for the Restore Good Fellow Lodge at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in Porter, Indiana. A number of Republicans had been attempting to remove “earmarks” from a series of spending bills that Congress had been considering. This was one of those efforts. An earmark is a legislatively mandated grant or project that is inserted into a spending bill, typically at the request of an individual Member.

Rep. Campbell, in his statement in support of his amendment, cited a 2008 Government Accountability Office finding that the Department of the Interior had a backlog of deferred maintenance projects totaling between $13.2 and $19.4 billion. Campbell then asked, rhetorically, “(W)ith all these billions of dollars of need in parks all around the country, is this the right way to allocate $1 million . . . Or would it be better to be allocating these funds on the basis of need or on the basis of use or on the basis of someone looking at all of the potential park projects and needs around the country and determining which ones meet a threshold requirement rather than do this by a Member request.”

Rep. Visclosky (D-IN), who was responsible for having the funds included in the bill, defended the project. He said its purpose is for education as well as preservation. Visclosky noted that the lodge is located at the Indiana Dunes Learning Center, and that over 48,000 students had participated in its programs since 1998. He also said that the installation of the water line would help the center to expand its educational program and reduce operation and maintenance costs. Rep. Dicks (D-WA), the chairman of the Appropriations Committee subcommittee that developed H.R. 2996, noted that the Park Service strongly supported the funding.

The amendment was defeated by a vote of 123-305. One hundred and seventeen Republicans and six Democrats voted “aye”. Two hundred and forty-six Democrats and fifty-nine Republicans voted “nay”. As a result, the million dollars earmarked to fund the installation of a municipal water line for a lodge at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore remained in H.R. 2996.