This gives new meaning

to the expression pissing away taxpayer money. The House wants to appropriate 2 million dollars to study flushless urinals. The company is in Michigan, so I guess its a congressman or congresswoman from that state pushing this idea. This would save Navy ships the cost of storing water but as James Joyner points out why is the taxpayer funding the study instead of the contractor?

Open Post- Indepundit

The House wants to divert $2 million in the Navy's FY06 operations accounts to boost a rapidly growing Michigan environmental technology firm that markets itself as the "world leader for waterfree urinals." In an unpublicized portion of the House version of the FY06 Defense appropriations bill, lawmakers added a conservation initiative that would pay for a Navy study exploring the use of "no flush" urinals. Advocates say the product could save thousands of gallons of water onboard ships and at military installations where water is scant. The initiative, which could help Falcon Waterfree Technologies expand its budding military contracting business, was added by appropriators even as they cut $2.9 billion from operations and maintenance accounts across the military services in an attempt to focus more spending on the global war on terrorism.