Washington, D.C. – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released a list of the most egregious pork-barrel projects contained in the Fiscal 2008 Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) Act.  One section of the bill alone –Economic Development Initiative (EDI) grants—is crammed with $123.5 million in pork spread over 285 projects.  In contrast, the House requested $78.2 million in pork spread among 480 projects.

The purported purpose of EDI is to increase economic development and revitalization by giving money to local governments, but it has become a notorious repository of pork projects.  Here are some outrageous examples of pork that members of the Senate added to the EDI portion of the THUD bill:

• $700,000 by Senate THUD Appropriations Subcommittee member Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) for College Park for blight removal along the Route 1 Corridor;
• $500,000 by Senate THUD Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Kit Bond (R-Mo.) for the Mid-America Research and Development Foundation in Jefferson City, for equipment to produce emerging plant-based economic development options for rural communities;
• $450,000 by Senate THUD Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) for Port Townsend for construction of the Northwest Maritime Center;
• $400,000 by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) for the Daly Preservation Trust to preserve and interpret the Daly Mansion, its buildings and grounds;
• $200,000 by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for (D-Nev.) for the Post Office Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada, to complete transformation of the old Post Office in downtown Las Vegas into a museum on local history;
•  $200,000 by Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) for the WiFi Service of Albany;
• $200,000 by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) for a Provo City downtown parking structure;
• $200,000 by Senate THUD Appropriations Subcommittee member Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) for the Scranton Housing and Community Space Initiative for planning, design, and construction of apartments and community space; and,
• $200,000 by Senate THUD Appropriations Subcommittee member Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) for Temple for the Downtown Redevelopment/Performing Arts Center.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.