Stop the scanners! Your lawmakers here in Washington earmarked money for fewer of their pet projects in fiscal 2006 than they did in fiscal '05?

But despite the 29 percent decrease in the number of pork-barrel projects, from 13,997 to 9,963, it's hard to say Congress is showing restraint. After all, the people you send to the Nation's Capital to represent your interests spent a record $29 billion -- that's billion, with a capital B -- on pork last year, according to Citizens Against Government Waste.

As it has every year for the last 16, the private, nonprofit group, which claims to represent more than 1.2 million like-minded people who think lawmakers ought to cool it with the pork, has published the Pig Book summary, which details a wave of spending on what appear to be useless projects.

By now, everyone is aware of the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska, where Sen. Ted Stevens (R) brought home the bacon. But did you know that lawmakers also gave $13.5 million to the International Fund for Ireland to help finance the World Toilet Summit? Or that they gave $1 million to fund the Waterfree Urinal Conservation Institute? Or that they handed over half-a-mil to the Sparta (N.C.) Teapot Museum?

Speaking about Washington's mushrooming appetite for pork, CAGW's Tom Finnegan says raiding the Treasury like this "is a long-practiced art" among lawmakers. "Year after year," he says, they "debase the political process by directing chunks of the federal budget back to their home districts and states to promote their own re-elections and reward special interests."

It's nice, of course, if you are on the receiving end of Congress's largesse. But $29 billion? When there is a projected budget deficit of $371 billion? And a national debt of $8.5 trillion?

The 375 projects totaling $3.4 billion in this year's pink book symbolize the most egregious and blatant examples of pork. To qualify, incidentally, the project must meet one of seven criteria: Requested by only chamber of Congress, not specifically authorized, not competitively bid, not requested by the White House, greatly exceeds the President's budget request or last year's funding, not the subject of Congressional hearings, or serves only a local or special interest. For what it's worth, most items in the book satisfy at least two of these requirements.

Each of the 11 major appropriations bills passed last year contains pork. But since this venue is about real estate, let's take a look at some of the juicier items in the measure to fund the Transportation, Treasury and Housing and Urban Development departments:

• $500,000 so the Seattle Art Museum can build the Olympic Sculpture Park.

• $650,000 to the Spokane Symphony to renovate the Fox Theater and rehab and expand the Seattle Aquarium.

• $250,000 so the city of Odessa, Tx, can renovate the Historical Globe Theater, and $200,000 so Nacogdoches can fix up the Fredonia Hotel and Convention Center. Looking for a place to hold your next meeting? How about beautiful, downtown Fredonia, Tx.

• $250,000 for the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo, Iowa, to rebuild its facilities. By the way, NCC sponsors an annual fair, and admission is only $7. Activities include: Cage combat, the 'Survivor' Family Game Show, Jocko & the J's Monkey Show, and Steeple's Wild West Bear Show. Worth the price of admission and then some.

• $200,000 for the expansion of the Wilmington (Del.) Music School, which recently held its third annual "Brunch with Beethoven" where members could participate in a private auction and attend a champagne-tasting seminar for $45. Sorry we missed it!

And then there are these earmarks, which, while not related to real estate, are still of more than passing interest. As in why are we paying for this?:

• $1 million for the Washington State ferries over wireless water project.

• $550,000 for the Museum of Glass in Tacoma.

• $1 million for the University of Texas Flywheel Bus and Truck program.

Finally, a deeper look at the aforementioned Teapot Museum, which is intended to boost tourism in Sparta, N.C., by exposing visitors to an "unexpected" art form. I'm on my way. How about you?

Taxpayers, says the pink book, "should be steamed" the half-a-million dollars they are spending on this project is going up in smoke.

Published: July 12, 2006

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When Lew Sichelman first started writing about housing in 1969, he was the youngest real estate writer in the country. Now, 37 years later, he's one of the oldest -- and most decorated. He has been rated the top housing columnist in the country by the National Association of Realtors as well as by his peers in the National Association of Real Estate Editors. Indeed, NAREE has recognized his work on numerous occasions. One year - due to his advancing age, he can't recall which one - he earned top honors in the annual NAREE Journalism Contest in three out of the four major writing categories. It was the first time one writer has won so many NAREE awards in a single year. Known for his ability to make even the most difficult topics understandable, Sichelman also has been honored by the National Association of Home Builders and the Mortgage Bankers Association. He began providing in-depth coverage of and consumer-oriented information about housing and housing finance at the Washington Daily News, where he was real estate editor. He held that same position for nine more years at the Washington Star, which purchased the News in 1972. The Star, a so-called "writer's newspaper" which also had the misfortune of being an evening paper, was put out of its misery in 1981, and Sichelman, who had begun self-syndicating his column in 1978, decided to become a full-time columnist. Today, his column, "The Housing Scene," is distributed by United Media to newspapers throughout the country. He also is on the staff of National Mortgage News, an independent newspaper which is considered the bible of the mortgage business. And he writes for numerous other publications, including MarketWatch.com, where he answers readers questions once a week, Sports Illustrated (don't ask), RealtyTimes.com, BigBuilder and others. Sichelman is married, the father of five and grandfather of eleven.