Earmark Spending $16.5 Billion in CAGW’s 2010 Congressional Pig Book

(Washington, D.C.) - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released the 2010 Congressional Pig Book, the group’s 20th anniversary exposé of pork-barrel spending.  The Pig Book revealed 9,129 earmarks worth $16.5 billion.

“Recent actions in the House to stop funding for-profit earmarks and the House Republican Caucus’ decision to not request earmarks, indicates that politicians from both parties recognize that taxpayers are enraged about the broken spending process in Washington,” said CAGW president Tom Schatz.  “They have noticed that it is popular to posture as an anti-earmarker.  Unfortunately, the 2010 Congressional Pig Book illustrates that most members of Congress still aren’t willing to eliminate the practice and why meaningful reform is necessary.” 

The number of projects declined by 10.2 percent, from 10,160 in fiscal year 2009 to 9,129 in fiscal year 2010, while the total tax dollars spent to fund them decreased by 15.5 percent, from $19.6 billion to $16.5 billion. 

Much has been made of reforms that require members of Congress to identify earmarks they request and the intended recipients of earmark funds, but CAGW uncovered 81 earmarks worth $6.5 billion that were funded in circumvention of Congress’s own transparency rules.  These stealth earmarks were particularly prevalent in the 2010 Defense Appropriations Act, which included 35 anonymous earmarks worth $6 billion, a staggering 59 percent of the earmarked tax dollars. 

The Pig Book Summary profiles the most egregious examples, breaks down pork per capita by state, and presents the annual Oinker Awards.  All 9,129 projects are listed in a searchable database on CAGW’s website www.cagw.org.   Examples of pork in the 2010 Pig Book include:

• $465,000,000 for the alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter;
• $5,000,000 for the Presidio Heritage Center in California;
• $1,000,000 for Portsmouth Music Hall in New Hampshire;
• $400,000 for the USA Swimming Foundation in New Jersey;
• $300,000 for Carnegie Hall in New York City;
• $250,000 for the Monroe County Farmer’s Market in Kentucky;
• $200,000 for the Washington National Opera in the District of Columbia; and
• $206,000 for wool research in Montana, Texas, and Wyoming.

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

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