By MARSHA MERCER
The Independence Day fireworks display on the National
Mall will last about 35 minutes this year, twice the length of the typical show.
The bigger and better display is thanks to donations by
two private fireworks companies of equipment and personnel worth $750,000 to
the National Park Service.
“We wanted to do this as a gift to America,” the
president of one of the companies told The Washington Post.
It probably didn’t hurt that President Donald Trump is
personally orchestrating 4th of July festivities, and the fireworks
industry wants an exemption from the next round of
Trump tariffs on Chinese
goods, which includes fireworks.
Be that as it may, it’s baffling the government can accept
donations of fireworks but not of diapers.
As the administration planned the July 4th extravaganza, we learned hundreds of migrant
children were being held in dirty, overcrowded conditions at a Customs and
Border Protection facility in Clint, Texas.
“`There Is a Stench'” The New York Times headline read
on a June 21 story that detailed how attorneys who visited Clint said babies
lacked diapers and children of various ages had inadequate food and water and no
access to baths, soap, toothbrushes or toothpaste.
The facility built for about 100 adults temporarily
had been stretched to house hundreds more children for weeks.
Then we saw the heart-breaking photo of the young
father and daughter who drowned trying to cross the Rio Grande for a better
life.
The administration says it has been overwhelmed
by an influx of migrants at the border. The Border Patrol transferred some of
the children at Clint out and then back as other facilities became overcrowded.
The White House and Congress couldn’t get their act together
to provide humanitarian relief -- so Texans did.
Last Sunday, Austin Savage and five friends went to a
Target in El Paso and spent $340 on diapers, wipes, soap and toys, the Texas
Tribune reported. But when they tried to deliver the goods, the detention
center lobby was closed and no one would come to the door.
Border Patrol agents in the parking lot saw, but
ignored, them, Savage said.
Then the friends realized they weren’t the first to try
to help. A plastic bag near the lobby door held
toothpaste and soap and a note: “I heard y’all need soap + toothpaste for kids.”
Savage returned on Monday to deliver the
items and again was ignored, NPR reported.
State Rep. Terry Canales, a Democrat from South Texas,
asked the government for a list of acceptable donations. “They do not accept
donations,” he tweeted. “How ridiculous is this?”
Why no donations? One weak, but possible explanation cited
is the Antideficiency Act of 1870, which says the government can’t spend beyond
the funds Congress appropriates and cannot accept donations of personal services
that have not been approved by Congress.
When I took a look at the law, though, I found no references
to goods, just to services.
And a 2008 Department of Homeland Security directive says:
“DHS may accept gifts to carry out program functions regardless of whether or
not appropriated funds are available for that purpose, provided such
expenditures are not barred by law or regulation.”
Companies and wealthy individuals have long opened
their wallets to help the government. People have
donated millions of dollars to the Treasury to help pay down the national debt.
After an earthquake shook the Washington Monument in
2012, billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein donated $7.5 million to match
the federal funds Congress had allocated for repairs.
Rubenstein has also donated $4.5 million to the
National Zoo for the giant panda program and $13.5 million to the National
Archives, among other projects.
Few can make such grand gifts, but ordinary Americans
are generous, too.
The good news is conditions in Clint reportedly have
improved. Journalists who visited Wednesday said monitors were watching the
kids, and officials say they have enough supplies. They’re studying whether
they can legally accept donations.
That our government would have a double standard allowing
it to accept donations of fireworks and not of diapers is absurd. Worse, it’s obscene.
The policy must change quickly.
©2019 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
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