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Opposition to Thomson prison sale growing
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Opposition is mounting from Republicans in Congress to a new proposal from the Obama administration to buy the Thomson Correctional Center. U.S. Rep. Bobby Schilling, R-Colona, and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., are pushing for the sale they say would create 1,100 jobs and ease overcrowding in the federal prison system. The Thomson prison, about an hour north of the Quad-Cities, was built at a cost of $128 million in 2001 and left largely empty since then. Its sale to the federal government was first raised in 2009 when President Barack Obama wanted to use it to house Guantanamo Bay detainees. The administration has since abandoned that plan. However, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, on Monday said there already are four empty federal prisons that require $100 million in funding to be opened and it made no sense to acquire another empty facility. Opening the Thomson prison would cost the Federal Bureau of Prisons an additional $67 million on top of the $165 million purchase price, said Sen. Hutchinson, the ranking member on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science. "If the BOP acquired Thomson for $165 million, it would then own five empty facilities and still need an additional $167 million in activation funds, for a total of $330 million," Sen. Hutchinson wrote to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. "It makes no fiscal sense for a cash-strapped agency to purchase an overpriced and decade-old prison, while it already has four prisons not in use." Mr. Holder sent a request to Congress last week to "reprogram" $165 million in federal prison funding to pay for the sale, similar to a request that failed last year. But U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, prevented the sale. Rep. Schilling, who unsuccessfully tried to persuade Rep. Wolf to sign off on the sale, has joined forces with U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Mount Vernon, to find a "bipartisan" solution to the impasse. Andie Pivarunas, Rep. Schilling's spokeswoman, said the latest opposition to the sale from Republican members of Congress showed that "there are a lot of moving parts and different folks involved in this process." Sen. Durbin blames Rep. Wolf for single-handedly blocking the agreement. But opposition to the purchase -- and the method Sen. Durbin and Rep. Schilling suggest to complete the agreement -- is not exclusive to Rep. Wolf. U.S. Rep. Charlie Bass, R-N.H., this week wrote to Mr. Holder opposing the sale and the proposal to fund it through an "earmark." "This earmark was not included in any bill voted on by Congress and would divert valuable resources from other important projects authorized by Congress," he wrote. A spokeswoman for Sen. Durbin rejected the idea the claim that using "reprogram" funds for the sale was an earmark, saying instead the Obama administration committed to buying the prison nearly three years ago. Rep. Schilling, who unsuccessfully tried to persuade Rep. Wolf to sign off on the sale, has joined forces with U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Mount Vernon, to find a "bipartisan" solution to the impasse. Andie Pivarunas, Rep. Schilling's spokeswoman, said the latest opposition to the sale from Republican members of Congress showed that "there are a lot of moving parts and different folks involved in this process." 
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Today is Tuesday, June 18, the 169th day of 2013. There are 196 days left in the year.
1863 -- 150 years ago: Fanatics have grown wonderfully civil since the president snubbedthem by revoking Burnside's infamous attack upon the freedom of the press.
1888 -- 125 years ago: The Interstate baseball league has collapsed, leaving Davenport'sleading team without a league connection.
1913 -- 100 years ago: Passengers were stunned yesterday when lightning struck a LongView street car at 9th Ave. and 25th St.
1938 -- 75 years ago: X-ray examinations today traced the trouble with Dizzy Dean's$250,000 pitching arm to a pulled muscle back of his right shoulder blade.
1963 -- 50 years ago: Radio station WQAD in Moline is being considered by the NationalCivil Defense Office for selection as a "secured communication center" Mrs. Gault,executive deputy director of the Moline Civil Defense unit reported today.
1988 -- 25 years ago: "Marketplace 29 A.D." an unusual vacation Bible school programthat will allow children to live three days as people did during the Bible Times June 21-23. The three day program, is a joint project of Aldersgate and Bethel-Wesley UnitedMethodist churches.
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