The House will soon vote on stripping an earmark for the Southwest Pennsylvania Industrial Heritage Commission. What's that you ask? Here is some background, and you can make up your own mind about the merit of this earmark.

According to the OMB, “In 1986, Congress directed the Service to conduct a study of the southwest region of Pennsylvania to plan and carry out the preservation and interpretation of the region's industrial heritage. This effort was initially called America's Industrial Heritage Project. Funding was provided to continue to support efforts to develop a regional network of sites along the Path of Progress National Heritage Tour Route.”

The Commission brags on its website:

“With the Commission’s support, partners planned and built museums, reclaimed abandoned railroad grades as trails, and cleaned steams. They wrote books and took photographs. They restored old buildings and interviews railroaders, miners, and steelworkers. They created organizations, corporations, alliances, confederations, authorities, commissions, councils, and new businesses. They spent money, borrowed money, loaned money, earned money, granted money, and accepted money.”

The Commission is clear who it is indebted to for its “millions of dollars of federal funds”:

“Congressman John Murtha heard from his constituents in Southwestern Pennsylvania. As he talked with them, an idea emerged. The very industries that were struggling in the 1980s had transformed America once before. Coal, steel, railroads – in the 19th century, a nation based on the economics of agriculture became a nation based on manufacturing. Could the proud history of Southwestern Pennsylvania once again lead America through the next economic transition? To answer that question, the nation’s history specialists were called in – the National Park Service (NPS).”

Murtha-contributor Randall Cooley is CEO of Westsylvania Heritage Corporation and Executive Director of Southwestern Pennsylvania Heritage Preservation Commission.