Since 1991, Citizens Against Government Waste’s Congressional Pig Book has documented more than 100,000 pork-barrel projects costing taxpayers $290 billion.  The proliferation of pork-barrel earmarks over the past 20 years has corresponded with the debasement of the federal budgetary process and Americans’ growing mistrust of their elected officials.  As lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.) have illustrated, lawmakers and lobbyists trade in earmarks as their “currency of corruption,” undermining our democratic system of government.

Congress has enacted several reform measures since 2007 to reduce pork barreling and increase earmark accountability and transparency, yet earmarks continue to figure prominently in one scandal after another on Capitol Hill.  In an effort to encourage more members of Congress and candidates for office to kick the earmarking habit, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) has created the No Pork Pledge (House version/Senate version).

As signatories to CCAGW’s No Pork Pledge, incumbents and candidates vow not to request any pork-barrel earmark, which is defined as meeting one of the following 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
• Serves only a local or special interest