Congressional Pig Book Thinner This Year
MASSPIGS
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Danny Lauridsen
Boston University Washington News Service
3-7-07
WASHINGTON –Congress isn’t bringing home the bacon like it used to, according to a new report released Wednesday.
The report, the 17th annual “Pig Book,” a compilation of pork-barrel projects published by the non-profit organization Citizens Against Government Waste, was noticeably thinner than previous years, something the organization attributes to the fact that Congress passed only two of the 11 appropriations bills last year. Citizens Against Government Waste is a non-partisan, non-profit group that tracks government spending.
The group identified at $7.8 million directed to Massachusetts last year, a sharp drop from the $116 million last year.
The spending bills for the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security were signed into law, but the remaining appropriations were wrapped into a single bill that cleared Congress after congressional leaders agreed to a moratorium on earmarks, expenditures inappropriately tucked into a larger bill.
The 2007 Pig Book identifies 2,658 pork projects, a 73 percent drop from last year, at a cost of $13.2 billion, a 55 percent decline from last year, in the Defense and Homeland Security appropriations acts for 2007.
“Although the Pig Book is leaner this year, there is still much to chew through,” Citizens Against Government Waste President Tom Schatz said. “While taxpayers should celebrate a reduction in the number and cost of pork-barrel projects, there is still much work to be done to ensure members of Congress do not return to their piggish ways in the future.”
Although the organization recognizes that not all earmarks are bad, it says that pork-barrel spending, corrupt lobbyists and questionable campaign fundraising tactics are connected to the increasingly commonplace practice of earmarking.
“President Bush says get rid of half the earmarks, but I don’t know how you do that. It’s like saying get rid of half the drug dealers ,” U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said.
The Pig Book identified six pieces of pork legislation in Massachusetts in 2007, including $2.2 million for the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston and $1.6 million for the Center for Advanced Sensor and Communication Antennas at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
Because the defense and homeland security budgets are two of the most difficult to break down by state, this year’s Pig Book did not provide state pork rankings, but Massachusetts has typically been near the bottom of the list of biggest porkers, ranking 46th last year and 39th the year before that.
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