Pork barrel spending on the rise

Government programs and spending considered to be pork barrel projects in fiscal 2001 totaled $18.5 billion, a 4 percent increase over fiscal 2000, the group Citizens Against Government Waste said Wednesday.

Lauded by longtime pork opponent Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Reps. Ed Royce, R-Calif., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., the group awarded 13 of its "Oinker" awards to House and Senate members the group felt most embodied the "mad pursuit of pork."

Top honors went to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, for bringing his home state $766.11 per capita in pork, about 30 times the national average of $25.52. Runners up were Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, who is the second-ranking Democrat on Appropriations, and Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.

Releasing their 2001 Congressional Pig Book Wednesday, Citizens Against Government Waste tallied 433 pork projects totaling $3.5 billion. Criteria for inclusion of projects is that they are requested by only one chamber of Congress; are not specifically authorized; are not competitively awarded; are not requested by the President; greatly exceed the President's budget request or the previous year's funding; are not the subject of congressional hearings or serve only a local or special interest.

"We need to go back to the organization debate," McCain said. "We need to see that the obscene practice of omnibus appropriations bills is eliminated."

He renewed the idea of restoring the line-item veto and establishing term limits for serving on Appropriations committees.

Other measures proposed by Citizens Against Government Waste were to require appropriations bills to identify the member or senator who requested the project, strictly enforce the rules against bringing bills to the floor with less than three days' notice and to set up a ticker-- similar to those used in stock markets--that would allow a comparative ranking of the success or failure of federal programs.

Royce, who co-chairs the Congressional Porkbusters Coalition, suggested outlawing appropriations members from voting on any bill that gives federal money to their home states.

"There needs to be some additional rationality to the process," added Kirk, a freshman.

However, some targeted members decried the report. Stevens on the Senate floor said the group branded as "pork" legitimate projects such as health programs and airport runways.