wastebook2014

WASTEBOOK 201421Free “High-End” GymMemberships forDHS Bureaucrats$450,000The Department of Homeland Security(DHS) announced earlier this year thatbudget cuts “require[ed] difficult choicesto align resources to address the greatestneeds of the Department.” 329Apparently one of those greatest needsis 236 memberships to a “state-of-the-art”gym and spa in downtown Washington, D.C.for some of the headquarters employeesof Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE), a DHS component. 330 The gym, VidaFitness, describes itself as “more than justa gym,” offering an “Aura Spa, Bang Salon,Fuel Bar, Gear Shop, Endless Pools, luxuriouslocker rooms, and the rooftop PenthousePool and Lounge.” 331Immigration Customs and Enforcement(ICE) employees receive free gymmemberships at a state-of-the-art facilitycourtesy of federal taxpayersThe Transportation SecurityAdministration (TSA) also purchased gymmemberships for some of its personnel,spending $52,650 on a contract so workersat Phoenix (Arizona) Sky Harbor InternationalAirport could work out at a private club. 332Interestingly, while exercising at aprivate gym by its employees was importantenough for ICE to drop $400,000 on thepriority, walking was not: the agency statedin its contract requirements that the gymmust be less than 526 feet or one tenth of amile from its office. 333 Vida Fitness is about360 feet from ICE’s front door. 334Golf Club Testing, ElementarySchool Experiments Aboard theInternational Space StationIt doesn’t take a rocket scientist to designexperiments on the International Space Station(ISS). In fact, sixth graders and other elementarystudent are proposing some of the studies beingconducted onboard the space station that is costingbillions of dollars a year to operate.ISS is one of the greatest achievements inmanned spaceflight. It is also the “single most expensiveobject ever created.” 335 And some scientistsquestion if the space station’s out of this worldcosts can continue to be justified.Sold to taxpayers as a one of a kind, orbitinglaboratory that would “permit quantum leaps inour research in science, communications, in metals,and in lifesaving medicines,” 336 it has yet to liveup to these heavenly expectations, while its costscontinue to soar to astronomical heights.The station’s original price tag was $17.4billion but NASA has spent nearly $75 billion forthe space station’s development, operations, andtransportation by the end of 2013. 337 This year thespace agency is spending $3 billion and expects tospend another $20.6 billion before 2020. 338 An independentaudit by the NASA Office of InspectorGeneral (OIG) concluded these cost projectionswere “understated” and “overly optimistic.” 339The space station, “designed and tested fora 15-year life span,” marked 15 years of continuousoperations in 2013. 340 In January 2014, theAdministration announced the U.S. would extend$3 billion 22our participation in ISS “for at least another decade.”341While some valuable research is being conductedon the station regarding life in space, thebillions being spent to maintain the station couldbe directed towards much more meaningful studiesor projects. The entire NASA budget for FiscalYear 2014 is $17.7 billion, 342 meaning the spacestation consumes nearly one-fifth of the agency’sresources.The White House Office of Science andTechnology Policy claims the station is necessaryand the research conducted onboard has “alreadyresulted in a number of discoveries with significantmedical and industrial implications,” including potentialvaccines. 343 This claim and commitment isquite controversial in the scientific community.“The station is a marvel,” but “it hasn’t yetproved it was worth the investment,” says JohnLogsdon, the former director of the Space PolicyInstitute at George Washington University. “It’san awfully expensive engineering demonstration,”according to Logsdon, who notes “if that’s all it is,that’s a hell of a price to pay.” 344As far back as 1997, James Van Allen, the pioneeringastrophysicist, concluded “the cost of thespace station is far beyond any justifiable scientificpurpose or any justifiable practical purpose.” 345The studies conducted onboard the spacestation “are not remotely comparable to the22