Obey Fights Name Game

They’re known as “monuments to me,” airports, bridges and courthouses named after the lawmakers who secured the federal funds to build them. Dave Obey says he won’t allow any more earmarks for such projects – even though his name is already etched on a building back home in Wausau.

The David R. Obey Center for Health Sciences at Northcentral Technical College features a water wall, atrium and a state-of-the-art surgical suite. It was constructed thanks to a $20 million earmark the Wisconsin congressman tucked into a federal spending bill in 2001.

Obey did not specify that the building be named after him in his funding request, but college officials were so grateful for the earmark that they named the building in his honor shortly after the project was completed in 2005.

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(Diana Marrero, “Obey Fights Name Game,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7/04/09)