The House and Senate transportation bills for fiscal 2001 allocate money to usual transportation issues such as airport renovations.  Also included in the bills are numerous non-transportation items, and other obvious earmarks made by appropriators.  Citizens Against Government Waste has identified more than $750 million in pork projects to date, with the two transportation bills currently in conference.  A few examples of transportation bacon are:

• Nevada Transportation Pork: Senate Appropriator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) secured more than $14 million for five projects in Nevada.  Of that total, $2 million goes to UNLV to develop a system to allow airline passengers to get boarding passes at their hotels.
• Talkeetna, Alaska Parking Lot: Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), Appropriations Committee chairman, scored $400,000 for a parking lot in this small Alaska town.  This figure represents just one percent of Stevens’ $43 million in earmarks in the Senate transportation bill.
• Railroad Museum, New Mexico: Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) promises the pork he secures for his home state “could improve transportation for the entire nation.”  But taxpayers will find spending $200,000 for a museum in Las Cruces is a dead end.
• Asphalt Technology Research, Auburn University: Senate Appropriator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) earmarked $2.5 million for this program that promises to answer this pressing national concern: is it better to use stone or gravel when mixing asphalt?  Auburn's National Center for Asphalt Technology already receives huge sums from local transportation departments and private donors.  Does it really need Shelby’s bacon bits?
• Savannah, Ga. Water Taxi: With the help of some friends on the Senate Appropriations Committee who are willing to soak taxpayers, Savannah, Ga. will receive $500,000 for a water taxi.
• Pioneer Courthouse Square Renovation: Courthouse renovations are popular earmarks, but this $400,000 parochial project has no transportation application whatsoever.
• Buckeye Greenbelt Beautification: House appropriator Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) secured $250,000 for trees and flowers for her home state, proving that a rose by any other name still smells like bacon.