Letter to the Editor: Departments need fixing

By ALFRED BROCK Canton
Mich.

Dear Editor,
It seems to me that after the intelligence departments are finally rolled into one, that other departments need to be fixed.
Consider for example: studies by the Department of Energy on the growth rate of chickens even though the growth rate of chickens has been extensively studied by the USDA.
The USDA has also been involved in breeding mutant cattle that will have more muscle but require less exercise. They have financed mapping out the genetic code of one species of cotton plant at a cost over tens of millions of dollars.
The United States Geological Survey has conducted a study on the development of tadpoles and birth defects in frogs. In the second case the frogs and tadpole deformities could best be studied by the EPA or the forestry service.
The EPA encourages high pressure injection toxic waste wells to handle industrial chemical waste by squirting it into the ground. The USGS and the DOE have both admonished the EPA for continuing this dangerous practice and the EPA has interfered with the chemical reclamation industry while enriching garbage corporations.
Nuclear rocket platform tests by NASA. The Air Force is spending NASA dollars on weapons development.
Advanced mapping techniques being developed by the forestry service even though the maps being developed by the foresty service already exist at the USGS.
If Mr. Bush were serious about keeping government small – he would keep it small. These few examples represent tens of billions of dollars in misspent money, effort and time.