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At a press conference to roll out the 2003 Congressional Pig Book Summary, representatives of the Washington watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste, or CAGW, were joined by Sen. John McCain and Rep. Jeff Flake, both Arizona Republicans, and GOP Rep. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. McCain congratulated members of the House for passing a "relatively clean" supplemental bill for the war in Iraq and homeland security, but was less charitable in his remarks about the Senate's behavior. He called the Senate spending for fiscal 2003 a "disgraceful performance" and the worst he had seen in his 20 years in Congress. McCain was outraged that he was able to collect only 38 cosponsors for his proposal to cut $149 million in pork-barrel projects that had been added in the Senate.

Flake blames the appropriations process, complaining that members were given only four hours to review the omnibus appropriation bill, which he described as standing 18 inches tall and containing more than 3,000 pages. "That is not by accident; that is by design," he says. Under House rules, members are entitled to three days to review a bill that large, Flake says, "but of course if we gave everybody three days, then we'd know about all these pork projects."

To thwart the urge to splurge, Flake wants a process built into the rules that will force members to defend and justify their pork projects in an open forum on the House floor. After all, is the U.S. economy strong enough to support congressional largesse that earmarks $1 million for oyster recovery in South Carolina? Are critics of the Bush administration's tax-cut proposals justified in approving $1 million in federal cash for the Bering Sea crab in Alaska, or for the brown tree snake in Hawaii? "Or should those same millions be used to begin replacing the thousands of Tomahawk cruise missiles at $1 million each that have been used in Iraq?" CAGW analysts ask.

CAGW President Tom Schatz notes that during the last two years, as the United States came under terrorist attack and responded to prevent further attacks, the number of pork projects has increased by 47.8 percent, and total pork-barrel spending has risen by 21.6 percent. Schatz compares that with the spending cuts that preceded World War II, when non-defense spending was slashed by 22 percent, and during the Korean War, when non-defense discretionary spending dropped 25 percent.

Congressional pork, as the CAGW defines it, is appropriated tax money either: 1) requested by only one chamber of Congress; 2) not specifically authorized by congressional committees; 3) not competitively bid under the federal contract-awards process; 4) not requested by the president; 5) greatly exceeding the president's budget request or the previous year's funding; 6) not subjected to congressional hearings; or 7) serving only a local or special interest.

This year, with the economy suffering and U.S. military forces engaged in fighting the war on terror, the record levels of congressional pork are more outrageous than ever. "We still have soldiers on food stamps," an exasperated Schatz fumed, suggesting that this might include families of some serving in Iraq today.

More than 250,000 American troops are deployed in the Middle Eastern war zone, and others are on alert around the world. An additional 108,000 workers joined the ranks of the unemployed in February. The federal budget deficit hovered around $300 billion and, due to anticipated costs of homeland security and the conflict in Iraq, the red ink still is rising. Nevertheless, CAGW representatives assert, after ending four and a half months of continuing resolutions since failing to pass a federal budget by the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year, Congress had to make do by passing an omnibus spending bill on Feb. 13. Apparently unswayed by either the budget failure or the unstable economy, Schatz estimated that the omnibus appropriation might have been the "porkiest" in U.S. history.

With record levels of state or recipient-specific "earmarks" for fiscal 2003, Congress outspent the previous fiscal year by 12 percent, an added total of $22.5 billion. In other words, 7.5 percent of the federal deficit that so many members of Congress have been complaining about in recent days resulted from congressional pork-barrel spending. The price to taxpayers for this, according to CAGW, has totaled $162 billion since 1991.

Cash-strapped taxpayers might be stunned to learn what members managed to add once they convened in private House and Senate conference negotiations at which staffs reconcile differences in companion legislation passed in each chamber. For instance, $250,000 "to implement the National Preschool Anger Management Project" for the home state of Sen. Tom Harkin and Rep. Tom Latham, both Iowa Democrats. This program, which teaches child-care providers how to handle preschool temper tantrums, might prove useful for citizens who find out that their tax dollars paid for it. This appropriation won CAGW's "Deficit in My Diaper Award."

Harkin vociferously opposed President George W. Bush's $726 billion tax-cut proposal, which was passed in the House but halved in the Senate before being sent to conference to try to negotiate a compromise. According to the Associated Press, Harkin recently warned his Republican colleagues that supporting the administration tax-cut plan would have a grim impact on the deficit.

But CAGW named Harkin its "April's Porker of the Month" for earmarking defense monies requested by President Bush for supplemental emergency war funding to pay for an agricultural facility in his home state. CAGW charged that Harkin's pork barrel received a $33 million earmark less than eight weeks ago in the fiscal 2003 Omnibus Appropriations Act, and also had bled off $50 million from last year's supplemental appropriations bill.

"Americans are counting on the departments of Commerce, Justice and State to execute key objectives in the war on terror – to hold together diplomatic coalitions, monitor intelligence for future threats, guard borders and bring terrorists to justice," according to the Pig Book. "Yet appropriators diverted critically needed funds from the three departments to fund pet projects."

For example, one provision that mysteriously turned up once the appropriations of those departments emerged from conference was $500,000 for the "First Tee Program." CAGW explained that this was justified as "creating affordable and accessible golf facilities to primarily serve those who have not previously had exposure to the game and its positive values."

As the debate rages on Capitol Hill over how Congress can squeeze dollars from the federal budget to fund health care, and how to help the nation's seniors with Medicare and prescription drugs, Americans apparently are expected to take heart that health-care programs for some cute and fuzzy creatures have fared well. Senate and House Agriculture Committee members Harkin and Latham collected $33 million for the National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa, and Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., made off with $500,000 for catfish health in Stoneville.

CAGW further reports that Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., managed to obtain $1 million so that his home state could study the DNA of bears; Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., obtained $81,000 to expand San Bernardino's Big Bear Zoo; Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, secured $7.8 million for local sea turtles and $825,000 for monk seals. (Humans in Inouye's state received help through yet another annual infusion – this fiscal year it was $19.7 million – for the Hawaii Federal Health Care Network. However, the money came out of the Department of Defense appropriation, managed through a subcommittee that Inouye chaired in 2002.)

Appropriation superstars were kind to creatures great and small as well. Then-Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, secured $750,000 for sea-otter research. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., another veteran pork spender, went home with $118,000 for "fish surveys" at the White Sulphur Springs National Fish Hatchery. But Byrd was one of seven senators who missed the 93-0 Senate vote to approve President Bush's supplemental appropriations request to support Department of Defense operations in Iraq and Department of Homeland Security operations for fiscal 2003.

Added to this list of head-scratchers was more than $6 million to help various states research "wood utilization"; $202,500 for facilities of the National Peanut Festival in Dothan, Ala.; $750,000 for hovercraft development in Toledo, Ohio; $300,000 for Iowa State University's Universal Kitchen Design Project; and $500,000 for coffee importers and exporters. "Because, I suppose, a coffee shop on every street corner just isn't enough," a bemused Rep. Toomey groaned.

"It's hard not to find some humor in these things," Toomey says. "I just wish it were all a joke." But the fact is, he adds, that it is a huge expense for U.S. taxpayers. "This kind of wasteful spending costs us jobs," he says. "This is a clear and obvious misallocation of the capital of America. It is an example of the government taking resources from the productive private sector. Whether it takes it from borrowing or takes it in the form of taxes, it is using money that would otherwise be put to a much more productive and useful purpose."

But, the Pennsylvania Republican adds, "Instead it is being used in hopes of helping members of Congress enhance their political prospects with a very narrow and targeted project in their district. That's wrong and it is counterproductive for maximizing economic growth, which is what we should be all about."

Looking over the 439 projects highlighted in this year's Pig Book, who knew the entertainment and recreation industries were so strapped for cash that they needed a government bailout? CAGW found that the Baseball Hall of Fame received $750,000 from federal taxes; the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame and Museum got $350,000; and, not to be outdone, the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame lassoed a cool $90,000. Also, CAGW analysts say, Congress gave $800,000 to the GRAMMY Foundation and $90,000 to the American Film Institute. Even the Davenport, Iowa, Music History Museum managed $800,000, and the Roswell Museum and Arts Center, in the district of then-House Appropriations subcommittee on the Interior Chairman Joe Skeen, R-N.M., pulled $340,000 as a result of the representative's clout.

But American interests did not selfishly crowd out pork for international projects, according to the CAGW. For instance, there was that $2 million for the Open World Leadership Center. In fiscal 2002 Congress had provided $8 million for that one, but reined in its generosity in fiscal 2003. The program was renamed, CAGW said, having previously been called the Russian Leadership Development Fund, known for flying "Russian political, business and community leaders to the United States to visit the Festival Flea Market in Florida and a swing dance."

The Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Agencies budget appropriation, CAGW charged, was a trough from which members of Congress scooped up $181 million in pork projects. For example, in the House, $25 million went for the International Fund for Ireland to finance "projects that hold the greatest potential for job creation and equal opportunity for the Irish people"; $4 million was provided to fund international fertilizer development; and $2.7 million more was sent to finance the anti-U.S. United Nations. And, despite "water wars" in our own country, Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., managed to flush out $2.5 million for the International Arid Lands Consortium to address water and energy issues in the Middle East.

Stop laughing, say waste watchers at CAGW. Every nickel of this comes from taxes you pay or debts run up in your name.

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Sheila R. Cherry is a writer for Insight.