Chuck Wettergreen said:

> The first story on the Saturday (6-15-02) ABC evening news
> concerned the "pork" hidden in the bill before congress to
> establish the Homeland Security Department. The reporter went
> through a laundry list of multi-million dollar appropriations for
> things unrelated to homeland security, and ended up with, "and
> that perennial favorite, the honeybee subsidy".

> I'm not aware of any "subsidy" to honey or honeybees in the US.
> Are they talking about the bee labs funding?

Has anyone purchased the "Real Player OnePass" required to
view the ABC news boradcast on the web?

     http://abcnews.go.com/Sections/WNT/#

If so:

a)  Which bill?  Number?  Names?
b)  Which house of Congress?  The House?  The Senate?
c)  Which reporter said this?

I'm not even sure which bill ABC was talking about, and we have
been watching pending legislation with care all year.  I cannot make
sense of the statement as made, since:

1)  The bill that "established" the "Department Of Homeland Security"
     (an unfortunate use of the term "Homeland" that ressurects visions
     of brown-shirted, goosestepping types) was HR3639, back in
     January 2002.  You can read the entire text of the bill here:

     http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c107:./temp/~c107etFj52

    It makes no mention of bees.  It was passed, so it is no longer
    "before Congress".

2)  The 2002 Farm Bill (HR2646) did restore non-recourse loans for a
     number of crops, including honey:

   "SEC. 1202. LOAN RATES FOR NONRECOURSE
   MARKETING ASSISTANCE LOANS.

  (a) 2002 AND 2003 CROP YEARS.-For purposes of the
       2002 and 2003 crop years, the loan rate for a marketing
       assistance loan under section 1201 for a loan commodity
       shall be equal to the following...

       ....(14) In the case of honey, $0.60 per pound."

    The full text is here:

   http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c107:./temp/~c107o73wbA

   But it was signed by the President, so it is also no longer "before Congress".

3) HR4775 "2002 Supplemental Appropriations Act for Further Recovery
    From and Response To Terrorist Attacks on the United States" is
    related to a Senate Comittee report that mentions the bee labs
    directly, as I posted to Bee-L on Jun 13th here:

  http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0206b&L=bee-l&F=&S=&P=9006

   ...but there was no allocation of funds for the bee labs in the bill, and
   the Senate report was merely "an expression of concern".

   This bill is still "in conference", having been worked upon by both the House
   and Senate, so it CAN be thought of as still being "before Congress".

One can look at what the House is doing (day by day) here:

   http://clerk.house.gov/floorsummary/floor.php3

One can look at what the Senate is doing here:

   http://democrats.senate.gov/calendar/

If anyone can find any mention "bees" in ANY pending legislation,
I'd sure like to hear about it.

        jim