The omnibus bill is full of taxpayer money going to the personal wants of elected members of Congress.
$1 million in taxpayer funding is in the bill for a KidsPeace, a children’s mental health asylum.
Dem Rep Susan Wild requested funding for KidsPeace earlier this year.
Wild had previously represented KidsPeace in a child rape lawsuit.
She argued that KidsPeace shouldn’t be on the hook for a settlement after a counselor raped a former patient.
That same counselor was charged earlier in the suffocation death of a patient.
The Washington Free Beacon reported:
Rep. Susan Wild (D., Pa.) is poised to secure $1 million in taxpayer funding for a children’s mental health asylum she defended in a molestation case.
The $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill has $1 million earmarked for renovations for KidsPeace, a Pennsylvania nonprofit Wild represented in a 2005 lawsuit filed by a former patient who was anally raped by a counselor. Wild, who requested funding for KidsPeace earlier this year, argued in the lawsuit that KidsPeace should not be on the hook for a settlement payout to the patient because the rape was a “medical incident” that should be covered by its insurance plan, the Washington Free Beacon reported. She said KidsPeace did not have a “crystal ball” to prevent the counselor’s “malfeasance,” though the counselor was charged years earlier in the suffocation death of a 12-year-old patient.
The earmark for KidsPeace is listed in the 4,155-page omnibus bill that senators are expected to approve this week. The bill includes $772.5 billion in non-defense discretionary spending on earmarks like the KidsPeace renovation. The bill includes tens of millions more on spending on other pet projects, including $477,000 in spending at Equity Labs for “antiracism virtual labs” and $3.6 million on the “Michelle Obama Trail” in Georgia.
Wild’s ties to KidsPeace came under scrutiny during her campaign, which she won by roughly 6,000 votes over Republican Lisa Scheller. A Republican group, citing the Free Beacon‘s reporting, detailed Wild’s advocacy for KidsPeace in a TV ad and asserted that “Wild is pushing for a million dollars in taxpayer money for the hospital, the same hospital that paid her.”
Why is this in the omnibus bill?
