(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) named House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) our March 2021 Porkers of the Month for bringing back corrupt, costly, and inequitable earmarks.

Rep. DeLauro and Sen. Leahy are trying to disguise the revival of pork-barrel earmarks by renaming them “Community Project Funding” and claiming that earmarks will be more transparent and limited.  Earmarking — by design — will never be transparent and will always be a form of legalized bribery.  CAGW’s earmark database contains 111,114 earmarks that have cost taxpayers $375.7 billion since the first Congressional Pig Book was released in 1991.  Earmarks are a lazy, unfair, and corrupt way to circumvent the authorization and appropriations process.  Rep. DeLauro and Sen. Leahy should not be reviving pet projects and sweetheart deals for members of Congress that will add billions to the national debt.

CAGW President Tom Schatz said, “It is appalling that Rep. DeLauro and Sen. Leahy have agreed to a plan to bring back pork-barrel earmarks.  CAGW has always been committed to fighting against earmarks while members of Congress have never agreed to ban them permanently.  With the national debt at more than $28 trillion and COVID-19 spending at more than $5.7 trillion, the last thing Congress needs to be given is more ‘incentives’ to spend more money.  Earmarks are not a path to unity; they are a road to fiscal ruin for taxpayers.  Putting lipstick on earmarks does not prevent them from being good old-fashioned pork-barrel spending and the most corrupt, costly, and inequitable practice in the history of Congress.  Rep. DeLauro and Sen. Leahy are obvious choices for this month’s Porker award.”

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.  For more than two decades, Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers and government officials who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.

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