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2008 Pig Book Pork
Friday, April 25, 2008
By: Alexa Moutevelis
Wastewatcher, April 2008
On April 2, CAGW released the 2008 Congressional Pig Book, which identifies 11,610 pork- barrel projects worth $17.2 billion in the fiscal year 2008 appropriations bills.
This year’s list of pork per capita is no surprise Alaska is number one and Hawaii is number two, just as they have been in every year except one in which CAGW has calculated pork per capita since 2000. Alaska received $380 million, or $556 per capita, while Hawaii received $283 million, or $221 per capita. Rounding out the top five are North Dakota, West Virginia, and Mississippi.
For the first time, CAGW has also calculated how many earmarks and how much money each member of Congress received in the appropriations bills. In the Senate, the top five in dollar amounts are all, not surprisingly, members of the Appropriations Committee, beginning with Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) with $892 million; Defense Subcommittee Ranking Member Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) with $469 million; Commerce, Justice Science Subcommittee Ranking Member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) with $465 million; Legislative Branch Subcommittee Chairwoman Mary Landrieu (D-La.) with $459 million; and Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) with $386 million.
In the House, the top three are all members of the Appropriations Committee Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), then Ranking Member of the Military Construction Subcommittee and now a U.S. senator, with $176 million; Defense Subcommittee Ranking Member Bill Young (R-Fla.) with $170 million; and Defense Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) with $159 million. The next two are Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) with $154 million, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) with $149 million.
While the top porkers in each chamber of Congress were Republicans, Democrats brought home the most pork with 5,199 projects worth $5.5 billion. Republicans took in 3,408 projects worth $4.4 billion, while the rest was either undisclosed or requested by multiple parties. Seventeen members of Congress did not receive any pork.
Examples of pork in the 2008 Pig Book include:
$7.9 million for 36 theaters;
$3 million for The First Tee, a golf program;
$1.5 million for seven opera houses;
$1,950,000 for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service;
$460,752 for hops research;
$211,509 in olive fruit fly research in Paris, France;
$196,000 for the renovation and transformation of the historic downtown Post Office in Las Vegas;
$188,000 for the Lobster Institute in Maine;
$148,950 for the Montana Sheep Institute; and
$98,000 to develop a walking tour of Boydton, Virginia.
The Pig Book Summary, a complete database of all 11,610 earmarks, a breakdown of pork per capita by state, a list of the annual Oinker Awards, and member totals are available at www.cagw.org.
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