A large military spending bill moving through Congress contains a little-noticed outlay for Boston that has nothing to do with national defense: $20 million for an educational institute honoring late Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.The earmark, tucked into the defense bill at the request of Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, requires US taxpayers to help the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate realize its goal of building a repository for Kennedy's papers and an accompanying civic learning center on the University of Massachusetts at Boston campus in Dorchester, next to the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.
The item is drawing fire from fiscal watchdog groups, who assert that military funds should not be raided to pay for an institution that has nothing to do with improving military readiness.
"Whatever beneficial value civic education may have, it's hard to see why the Defense Department should pay for it,'' said Laura Peterson, a senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense in Washington. "It would seem the location of this hefty earmark has more to do with the powerful position of its sponsor than [the Defense Department's] responsibility to educate elementary school children.''