POL - Congressional Pork-Barrel Awards

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Pork-Barrel Awards

Wednesday March 14 8:40 PM ET Group Gives Congressional 'Pork-Barrel' Awards

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A citizens group cited on Wednesday what it called a record of $18.5 billion in so-called pork barrel -- or wasteful spending -- in Congress last year.

At a mock awards ceremony featuring a real hog eating out of red trough, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) named top congressional ``oinkers,'' Democrats and Republicans alike.

They included:

-- Sen. Ted Stevens (news - bio - voting record), an Alaska Republican. CAGW said he earned ``The American Expense Award'' for $480 million in ``pork'' in his home state, including the most expensive project per capita in the nation -- $400,000 for a parking lot and pedestrian access in Talkeetna, population 300.

-- Sen. Tom Harkin (news - bio - voting record), an Iowa Democrat, and Rep. Tom Latham (news - bio - voting record), an Iowa Republican. They were named recipients of ``The Talk Is Not Cheap Award'' for $4 million for the continuation of the Iowa Communication Network's fiber optic demonstration project.

-- Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott. He got ``The Pillager from Pascagoula Award.'' CAGW said he forced the Pentagon (news - web sites) to build a multimillion dollar amphibious assault ship it does not want at Ingalls Shipyard in his home state of Mississippi.

To be classified as pork, the project has to meet at least two of a number of criteria set by CAGW, such as: It was not subjected to competitive bidding; it was not subjected to a congressional hearing, and it serves only a local or special interest.

While the group's awards drew plenty of snickers at the packed CAGW news conference, it brought angry words on the Senate floor.

Stevens said much of the spending attributed to him in the group's publication, ``2001 Congressional Pig Book Summary,'' was requested by the Clinton administration, ``not me.''

``It shows the accuracy of this list,'' Stevens said. ``Other items listed on this waste list include runway lights. It so happens that 80 villages in Alaska have no roads or hospitals, so they depend on medical evacuation by aircraft.''

Sen. Robert Byrd (news - bio - voting record), a West Virginia Democrat who has been listed as an ``oinker'' himself in CAGW's annual report, which dates back to 1991, rose in defense of Stevens.

``Let me thank the senator from Alaska for being a good servant of his people,'' Byrd said. ``I have been in the same boat with the senator in many ways, and I have no apologies to make,'' Byrd said. ``What's one man's pork is another man's job.''

CAGW identified what it found to be an unprecedented $18.5 billion in ``pork'' in the 13 appropriation bills approved by Congress last year, $800,000 more in wasteful spending than it identified last year.



-- Anonymous, March 27, 2001


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