(Washington, D.C.) - Citizens Against Government Waste today (CAGW) named Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) the October Porker of the Month for preaching fiscal restraint in hurricane relief spending while seeking to protect and expand pork and wasteful spending in his home district.  Rep. LaHood favors coupling drought relief money for Illinois with hurricane relief measures, played a key role in blocking a plan to consolidate Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices, rejected calls to return federal funding for local highway projects, and attempted to kill the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process. 

Rep. LaHood has teamed up with other lawmakers to procure farm assistance money for Midwestern states, claiming that farmers should be compensated for disruptions to grain shipments on the Mississippi River after Hurricane Katrina.  But farmers are already “compensated” by taxpayers to the tune of $17.8 billion per year with most of that money going to large farms and agribusinesses.  Illinois farms were the third-highest subsidized in the nation from 1995-2003, according to the Environmental Working Group.  Comparing a cyclical drought to the worst natural disaster in U.S. history opens the federal trough to every special interest that can claim it was indirectly affected by the Gulf Coast hurricanes.

As a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rep. LaHood played a key role in scuttling a plan by the United States Department of Agriculture to close 713 of the 2,351 FSA offices, saving $50 million per year beginning in fiscal 2007.  In an era when fewer farmers are tending larger farms and most of the paperwork is filed online, the FSA system still reflects the farming patterns of the 1930’s.  Rep. LaHood pledged to “fight-like-you-know-what” to prevent the consolidation of 26 FSA offices in Illinois.  In fact, Rep. LaHood bragged about thwarting the reform “for the fifth or sixth” time.      

Rep. LaHood also submitted a proposal to reject the BRAC Commission’s recommendations to close or realign 182 military bases, including the Illinois National Guard’s 183rd Fighter Wing.  The plan would save $35.6 billion over 20 years and make the military more capable of facing modern threats.  Fortunately, the House Armed Services Committee rejected Rep. LaHood’s attempt to impede military transformation just to keep 15 fighter jets in his home district. 

The $286.4 billion Transportation Equity Act (H.R. 3) includes about 6,400 pork-barrel projects costing taxpayers more than $24 billion.  While some lawmakers and cities are offering to cancel local projects to help hurricane victims, Rep. LaHood has promised that the $44 million for local projects will not be cut (Peoria Journal Star, 10/14).

While Rep. LaHood claims to favor rebuilding the Gulf Coast in a “responsible way,” he also calls it “a little unrealistic . . . to be having heartburn about the deficit.”  As further proof that the congressman is no friend of the taxpayer, his congressional rating of 29 percent from the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lowest among House Republicans.  For refusing to recognize the need for sacrifice in an emergency, for making empty and hypocritical statements in favor of fiscal responsibility, and for opposing sensible and cost-saving reforms, CAGW names Rep. Ray LaHood Porker of the Month for October 2005.

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.  Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.