Softwood slush-fund for Republicans?

[da]

james_nicoll tells this story, which could scare the crap outta me. Google doesn't report any follow-up news on it, though it was supposed to be completely resolved as of September 1.

Briefly: the Canada/US Softwood Lumber dispute was wrapped up with $450 million conveyed as a trust fund to the White House for "meritous initiatives" of the President's choosing, not via the Congress. This, according to a trade lawyer in Virginia, is bound to be a slush-fund for Republican re-election campaigns. Anyone out there with contacts who could help confirm or deny this?

Ugh.

Comments

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Nicoll, actually.

[thingo.livejournal.com]

Admittedly, I don't know much about this story. But a little bit of poking around with Google news seems to suggest that the $450 million won't simply be dropped into a slush fund. If this article is to be believed, the money will be divided up in what appears to be a fairly satisfactory way:

Of the $450 million provided for meritorious initiatives under the agreement, the United States Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Inc. was identified to receive $200 million, the American Forest Foundation was identified to receive $150 million, and Habitat for Humanity International was identified to receive $100 million.

Let's hope this turns out to be the way the money is used.