Easy Come, Easy Go

The new year starts with an incredible story in the Washington Post: The District has to return $5 million to the federal government – unused funds that were meant to provide food to needy children and adults through the DC State Education Office.

The story reports that "anti-hunger activists said the only two programs that did not show a decline in participation and that spent all of their money were those that did not require any effort on the part of the State Education Office to recruit or train sponsors."

Great job you're doing there, Mr. Mayor. It seems that all your administration is good for are things that require no effort. I could have given you 100 names of people who could have successfully spent that money.

Your spokesman, Tony Bullock, told the Post, "We don't like to leave federal money on the table. At the same time, we can't invent ways to spend it. We have to spend it within the program guidelines and requirements, which is not always easy to do." Sounds like what he really meant was, it wasn’t easy, so we skipped it.

Shame on you, Mayor Williams. May the voices of hungry children haunt your dreams.