U.S. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina joined a small number of his colleagues last week to vote for the transfer of $125 million in federal spending, which was originally intended for a limited-interest project in Alaska, in favor of rebuilding a bridge near New Orleans, La.

An amendment proposed by Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn on Thursday would have de-funded the widely ridiculed “Bridge to Nowhere,” which was appropriated $230 million in July to connect Ketchikan, Alaska — with a population of less than 15,000 — to Gravina Island, which has less than 50 inhabitants. Coburn’s proposal, which would have steered $125 million of the Alaska earmark to instead help repair an Interstate 10 bridge across Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana, was defeated by an 82 to 15 vote. The remaining $105 million would have been returned for other projects in Alaska, but not for the Gravina Island bridge.

Despite a threat to quit the Senate by Alaska Republican Ted Stevens if the amendment passed, Burr joined nine fellow GOP members and four Democrats to support Coburn. North Carolina Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole voted against the amendment. Spokesmen for both Burr and Dole did not return telephone messages seeking comment before the publication deadline for this story.

Coburn has led a conservative rebellion against excessive wasteful spending during the Bush administration. When the Senate in mid-September debated a package of $62 million for Gulf Coast relief after Hurricane Katrina, he called upon congressional colleagues to seek financial offsets to pay for it.

“Is it important right now to spend $200 million on a bridge to 50 people in Alaska?” Coburn said in a statement on the Senate floor Sept. 8. “Should we be doing that when we could spend $200 million helping people in New Orleans or Mississippi? There isn’t going to be anybody except 50 people and two senators and one congressman who thinks that is a good priority.”

The Alaskan bridge was originally funded as part of a $286.4 billion transportation appropriations bill in July. Government watchdog groups sharply criticized the legislation because it contained more than 6,500 “pork” projects that totaled more than $24 billion.

Both Dole and Burr voted for the transportation bill, and praised it because it would increase the amount of federal money returning to North Carolina, compared to similar appropriations bills in years past. But Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington, D.C.-based taxpayer advocacy group, in August highlighted a $1.6 million earmark to “construct bicycle and pedestrian trains” in Durham, and another $1.6 million for completion of the American Tobacco Trail in Durham and Chatham counties, as needless spending.

CAGW is also conducting a campaign to pressure congressmen to not attach pork projects to legislation that will fund relief for victims of Hurricane Katrina. The group wants lawmakers to pledge to find offsetting cost savings in the federal budget to pay for hurricane aid. Conservative bloggers also have joined in the effort to cut wasteful spending by identifying pork projects in their states and pressuring their members of congress to eliminate them.

Two days before the “Bridge to Nowhere” vote, Dole co-sponsored legislation that would create a Commission on Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies. According to her press release, the CARFA Act would “create a bipartisan commission to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of federal agencies’ programs and submit to Congress recommendations for realigning or eliminating programs where inefficiency, waste, or fraud are found.” Members of the commission would be appointed by the president.

Paul Chesser is associate editor of Carolina Journal. Contact him at [email protected].