A-One, A-Two and a Brouhaha : Congress: A plan to spend federal funds to restore Lawrence Welk’s birthplace has some people crying foul.

Resentment is bubbling over congressional approval of $500,000 to restore the birthplace of Lawrence Welk, the king of “champagne music.”

The project’s leader defended the plan to renovate the farmhouse where Welk was born and develop a German-Russian history museum and other tourist attractions.

“People are saying we’re taking money away from farmers. It’s not so,” said Rosemary Schaefbauer, president of Welk Heritage Inc. “This money was allocated for rural development. North Dakota is going to benefit a whole lot from it.”

The grant is part of a $52.2-billion agricultural appropriations bill that the House passed Monday and sent to President Bush.

It piqued interest on radio talk shows across the country, whose hosts have been calling Schaefbauer. It also raised the ire of Rep. Silvio O. Conte (R-Mass.). He called it an example of the kind of project the country cannot afford in a budget crisis.

“That’s right, ‘A-one, a-two, a-three, a-four, a-half-a-million dollars!” Conte said, mimicking the way Welk used to direct his orchestra. “What will they do for an encore, earmark funds to renovate Guy Lombardo’s speedboat? Or restore Artie Shaw’s wedding tuxedo?”

Welk, 87, does not grant interviews. One of his daughters, Shirley Fredricks, said by telephone from Los Angeles that news of the grant caught the family by surprise.

“We were astonished, and, I must say, embarrassed,” she said. “We actually didn’t know until last week that the funding had even been asked for.”

She said the family would have preferred that money for the project come from private sources, but Sen. Quentin N. Burdick (D-N.D.) thought that federal money could help.