The Citizens Against Government Waste is back with a new edition of its Congressional Pig Book. The 600,000 member non-partisan organization calls the annual tome" The Book Washington Doesn't Want You to Read," and no wonder it ain't pretty.

CAGW labeled 4,326 projects approved by Congress for fiscal 2000 as porcine. That's a 52 percent increase over FY 1999. In total, the tally was $17.7 billion in pork-barrel spending, a 47 percent increase. And as usual, appropriators tending to the purse-strings of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Veterans Affairs and several independent agencies were responsible for their share.

Among other things, the men and women we sent to Washington to represent us used our money to fund research into windstorms and animal waste management, the renovation of a local fire station, experiments in extreme weather conditions, a machine aimed at growing plants in space and ship-bottom painting.

The running of the pigs, Washington-style, represents a "perpetual raid on the Treasury," says CAGW, which is dedicated to educating the public about waste, mismanagement and inefficiency in the federal government. And for fiscal 2000, it was "the same old story" as lawmakers gouged and gored money for their pet projects.

The Pig Book lists 365 approved projects as the "most egregious and blatant examples of pork." To make the list, an item had to meet at least one of the following 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 or the previous year's funding, not the subject of congressional hearings, or serves only a local or special interest. Most satisfied at least two.

The fiscal 2000 VA/HUD appropriations bill alone contained 832 projects without budget requests. It also included funds for Community Development Block Grants, which was originally established to provide formula grants to aid low and moderate-income households, eliminate urban blight and meet emergency needs. But a generous portion of the dough allotted by lawmakers was earmarked for some of the richest towns in the country. Hey, $21 million was spent on museums, theaters and performing arts centers.

Out of the 447 CDBG grants, three out of four were added in conference, and the rest were added by the Senate. "This closed-door deal making," CAGW says, "benefitted the privileged few at the expense of many."

The Senate added $434.5 million for the Corporation for National and Community Service, including $234 million for President Clinton's flagship volunteer program, Americorps. The House wanted to terminate CNCS because Americorps cost taxpayers $27,000 per year per volunteer.

The big winner, though, was Rep. James Walsh, R-N.Y., who chairs the House VA/HUD Appropriations Subcommittee. Rep. Walsh took home nearly $42 million for his district, including $450,000 for the rehabilitation and conversion of the former NYNEX building in Syracuse into a parking garage. His counterpart in the upper chamber, Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., brought home $37 million worth of bacon, including $1.5 million to study animal waste.

For his work, Rep. Walsh earned "The Empire State Strikes Back" award. But poor Sen. Bond. He had to share CAGW's "Smell Test Award" with Rep. Stephen Buyer, R-Ind.

My personal favorite, however, is Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who has secured more than $1 billion in pork for his state since CAGW began counting back in 1991.

In the fiscal 2000 VA/HUD appropriation bill, he got $3.5 million for the University of Alaska, which has held such educational exhibits as "Women of the Gold Rush," "Not Just a Pretty Face Evolution of a Doll Collection" and "Fly Fishing and Book Making."

Published: April 25, 2000

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