Congress members and Pork

Anice article in USA Today on why efforts to eliminate earmarking, or pork, are not much short of futile:

Lawmakers deal with voter anger over 'pork'
Posted 5/2/2006 4:53 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) — Strange things are happening in Congress.

The playground bully in the Senate — the Appropriations Committee — actually took a loss last week at the hands of senators determined to strip so-called pork barrel projects from a bill that's supposed to be devoted to the war in Iraq and hurricane relief.

And the House this week will vote on requiring members to attach their names to "earmarks" — those hometown projects slipped into spending bills. The idea is that the sunshine of public scrutiny will mean fewer wasteful, silly sounding projects like $500,000 for a teapot museum in Sparta, S.C.

Lawmakers say voters are getting sick of all this pork; there's even a recent poll that says reforming earmarks is the most important issue facing Congress. Could it be that politicians are losing their appetite for the other white meat?

Hardly.

The House Appropriations Committee reports it has received 21,863 project requests from lawmakers. That's about 50 each for 435 members and a few non-voting delegates. Still, it's progress. Last year, the panel got 34,687 requests.