June 20, 2010
by: Leslie K. Paige

Government WasteWatch, Spring 2010

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) came up with the idea for the first Congressional Pig Book soon after the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in 1988 during President Reagan’s last year in office, issued a list of unauthorized projects that were included in Congress’s annual appropriations bills. Members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees promptly fired off a warning to OMB that if another list of such projects was printed, the agency’s budget would be cut in half.

Such threats were of no consequence or concern to CAGW, so over the following two years the organization worked with members of the newly-formed, bi-partisan Congressional Porkbusters Coalition to come up with a set of criteria for pork-barrel projects. The outcome was the establishment of the seven-point test for pork that has been the guiding principle for each of the 20 Pig Books published since 1991.

At that time, CAGW had three modest goals: uncover, highlight and publicize the most egregious examples of pork-barrel spending; promote changes in the budget process; and, focus more attention on the need for a line-item veto for the president. The organization was joined early in this mission by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has attended more Pig Book press conferences than any other member of Congress. Sen. McCain still carries the Pig Book around with him when he meets with his constituents; he once said that “this book should be read by every citizen in America.” Most recently, Sen. McCain held up the 2010 Pig Book for the cameras on Fox and Friends on April 15, the day after he joined CAGW and others at the 2010 Pig Book press conference.

There is little doubt that CAGW has accomplished its first goal – highlighting and publicizing pork-barrel spending. While CAGW is the only organization that has been exposing pork since 1991, in the past several years other organizations have joined the fray amid increased media attention to this form of wasteful spending. A turning point was the inclusion of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” in the 2005 highway authorization bill and the subsequent de-funding of the project in the fiscal year (FY) 2006 transportation appropriations bill.

CAGW is the nation’s best-known group in regard to pork-barrel spending; tens of millions of Americans have been exposed to the Pig Book through extensive media coverage and member outreach. Prior and subsequent to the April 14 press conference, there were more than 600 stories about the 2010 Pig Book on television throughout the country, including one of the top two stories on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” CBS, CNN and CNN Headline News, CNBC, C-SPAN, Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, MSNBC, NBC, and dozens of local news stations. In addition to the many radio interviews conducted with CAGW staff, there were hundreds of stories in print and online, most noticeably in Cal Thomas’s number-one-rated nationally syndicated column, which appears in more than 500 newspapers.

While CAGW has long sought changes in the budget process to force greater transparency and accountability for earmarks as a step toward the elimination of all such projects, the proposals took on more urgency as the number and cost of earmarks exploded under the Republicans, beginning in 1995. Most Americans are probably not aware that one of the driving factors for the dramatic increase came from a request by then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) to the Appropriations subcommittee chairmen (known as “Cardinals”) to add projects to their respective bills in the districts of vulnerable Republican freshmen. Since Republicans had taken over the House in 1994 for the first time in 40 years, Speaker Gingrich believed that he needed to ensure their re-election with pork. Everyone knows the outcome of that strategy. It led to the incarceration of several members of Congress and numerous lobbyists and Bush administration officials who got caught up in Jack Abramoff’s criminal activities related to what Abramoff called “the earmark favor factory.” In 2006, it helped bring an end to the Republican majority in Congress.

To their credit, and with CAGW’s support, the Democrats enacted a series of reforms beginning in 2007 to provide more transparency, including requiring the names of members of Congress to appear next to their requested projects in 2008 and requiring letters of request that identify where and why the money will be spent. In FY 2010, earmarks named after sitting members of Congress were eliminated in the House.

In FY 2011, House Democrats are not requesting earmarks that go to for-profit entities; House Republicans are not requesting any earmarks (although there are both exceptions and definitional questions); not surprisingly, the Senate has rejected any limits on earmarks. The three House Republicans renegades who have announced that they will simply ignore the unilateral earmark moratorium are Reps. Don Young (R-Alaska), who requested $14 billion in earmarks in FY 2011, or only $2.5 billion less than the total of $16.5 billion in the 2010 Congressional Pig Book; Joseph “Anh” Cao (R-La.), who requested more than $400 million, or nearly ten times the $47 million he obtained in FY 2010; and Ron Paul (R-Texas). They apparently all believe they must keep feeding at the taxpayer-funded trough when it is clear to the rest of their conference that earmarks are wasteful, as well as politically toxic.

Despite this progress, much more remains to be done to expose and eventually eliminate earmarks. H.R. 3268, the Earmark Transparency and Accountability Reform Act, introduced by Reps. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) and Adam Smith (D-Wash.) calls for earmarks to be available online for review at least 72 hours before the legislation is brought to the House floor; all earmark requests to be posted online for public review on the House Clerk’s website; and, all earmark language to be incorporated into the text of the bill. The bill also calls for line-item veto authority for the president, a regular audit process for federally funded projects, and disclosure of money spent by private groups lobbying on behalf of earmarks.

H.R. 3268 prohibits members of Congress from adding any earmarks in a conference report, meaning each earmark would have to be included in the House or Senate version of an appropriations bill. While the bill includes important reforms that deserve to be enacted, it should also include a requirement that every earmark be subject to a hearing, which would expose the projects to taxpayers and permit the opportunity to object at a much earlier time in the appropriations process.

In May 2010, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) introduced S. 3335, the Earmark Transparency Act of 2010. This bill would create an online searchable database open to the public in one convenient location. The database would provide details on projects including the amount requested, the amount approved, the sponsor’s name, and the location of the earmark.

There were 47 members of Congress, 36 Republicans and 11 Democrats, who did not request any earmarks in FY 2010. On March 16, 2010, in an effort to get all of his colleagues on record regarding earmarks, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) offered an amendment that would have established a one-year moratorium on the practice. It was rejected by a vote of 29-68, with four Senate Democrats breaking ranks to vote with the majority of Republicans in support of the amendment.

However, individual senators are moving ahead despite the lack of consensus for a moratorium. On April 14, the day of the Pig Book press conference, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) announced that he was withdrawing his FY 2011 earmark requests. Sen. Corker said in a press release, “Given our country’s fiscal condition, I could not in good conscience keep my name next to any earmark requests this year.” It is likely that other senators will follow Sen. Corker’s lead.

CAGW’s third goal in releasing the first Pig Book was to get line-item veto authority for the president. For many years, Sen. McCain had co-sponsored a line-item veto bill with then-Senator (and possibly future Senator) Dan Coats (R-Ind.). It was finally enacted into law during President Clinton’s first term, meeting one of CAGW’s goals in writing the first Pig Book. Although that version was found to be unconstitutional, and no action has been taken since then to adopt legislation that would pass muster with the courts, there are some promising signs that something may be done sooner rather than later.

On May 7, 2010, three weeks after the April 14 press conference, President Obama announced his support for a constitutional line-item veto. While it is clear that his “conversion” to that cause is long after the massive increases in spending under his administration and Congress, that is no reason to reject his efforts or refuse to demand that Congress act quickly to pass a bill.

Americans continue to face an uncertain economic future with a $1.6 trillion budget deficit and a $13 trillion national debt. Earmarks are not the biggest financial problem facing the country and eliminating them will not balance the budget. However, continued progress in cutting the number and cost of earmarks will send a clear message to taxpayers that their outrage over wasteful spending is having an impact on Capitol Hill.