Congress’s Pork Spending Revealed in Pig Book
PORK
Union Leader
Matt Negrin
Boston University Washington News Service
2 April 2008
WASHINGTON — New Hampshire’s lawmakers brought home the bacon — or pork — last year, sending millions of dollars to the Granite State as Congress continued to use taxpayer money to fund 11,610 pet projects, a watchdog group announced Wednesday.
Congress spent $17.2 billion on pork, a 30 percent increase from last year, according to the Citizens Against Government Waste, which unveiled its annual “Pig Book” detailing the biggest ventures of the 2008 fiscal year.
Tom Schatz, president of the citizens group, said this year the good news is that most of the bills have more information about the projects and the names of members who sponsored them. Yet 464 undisclosed projects still totaled $3.4 billion, he said.
Schatz and six Republicans (and a person in a bright-pink pig suit) who flanked him at a press conference all called for more transparency in the earmark process. “Legislation may not make this happen as soon as shame and embarrassment,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.
The Pig Book defines pork as spending that meets at least one of seven criteria: requested by only one chamber of Congress; not specifically authorized; not competitively awarded; not requested by the president; greatly exceeds the president’s budget request; not the subject of congressional hearings; and serves only a local or special interest.
For New Hampshire, Republican Sen. Judd Gregg was the biggest porker with $93.8 million for 63 projects. Gregg, the senior minority member of the Budget Committee, joined 70 senators last month in rejecting a resolution, proposed by DeMint, that would have prohibited earmarked spending for a year.
“Earmarks for New Hampshire that I have supported have consistently fallen within the terms and requirements of strict budgetary discipline,” Gregg said in a statement to the Union Leader, touting his efforts to fund university research and conserve wetlands and forests. “I have worked hard to keep taxpayers informed about where their dollars are being spent, which is why I am committed to full transparency in the earmark process.”
The state’s other Republican senator, John Sununu, secured $69.4 million in 36 projects, including some for improving information technology at hospitals and providing housing for homeless veterans in Manchester and Nashua. Sununu, the newest member of the Finance Committee, voted with 28 senators in favor of the nonbinding resolution.
“We should have rules that prevent items from being inserted … at the last minute,” Sununu said in an interview. “Requests should be made early, vetted through the process and go through bills on either the House or Senate side.”
In per capita spending, New Hampshire placed near the middle at 28th, a significant drop from its 11th-place spot last year. The book totals the state’s pork at $42 million, but that figure does not include multiple-state and some other projects.
New Hampshire’s freshman House members — Democrats Paul Hodes ($35.5 million for 35 projects) and Carol Shea-Porter ($41.9 million for 29) — brought home more than the average representative but not nearly as much as their Senate counterparts.
“New Hampshire’s tax dollars should be spent in New Hampshire, and I will continue my work to bring greater transparency and accountability to the earmark process with further reform,” Hodes said in a statement to the Union Leader.
Among Hodes’s earmarks are funds for BAE Systems in Nashua to improve the missile-warning systems in Army helicopters and money to help Franklin revitalize its downtown area with sidewalks, lighting, fencing and trees. He also gave credit to Gregg for helping secure funds for economic development, education and jobs.
The arguments seem to be made every year, with most members of Congress denouncing wasteful spending but at the same time siphoning off money in the federal budget for home-state projects. President Bush has called earmarking a “secretive process” and has urged changing it. All three presidential candidates have vowed to fight earmarks if elected.
As two live pigs scuffled next to reporters at Wednesday’s press conference at the National Press Club, Rep. John Campbell, R-Calif., said it is the responsibility of citizens “outside the beltway” to demand that Congress be more accountable with taxpayer dollars. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., said there is a “lack of congressmen and senators who want to stop wasteful spending.”
And Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the senior Republican on the House Budget Committee, said the 2008 Pig Book shows “the priorities of Congress are to pick pork over paychecks.”
Republican Jeff Flake, however, admitted it was his party that “built earmark into what it is,” referring to the 12 years the GOP ran Congress. “We’ve been awful at this,” the Arizona representative said.
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