September Porker of the Month

CAGW Names 171 Representatives Who Voted Against Earmark Reform Porkers of the Month
Washington, D.C. Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named all 171 members of Congress who voted against the disclosure of earmarks Porkers of the Month. On September 14, the House voted 245-171 for an internal rule change (H. Res. 1000) that requires all earmarks and their sponsors to be identified in spending, tax, and authorization bills.


“This is a serious step toward opening up the earmarking process,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said. “Much remains to be done to end the abuse of earmarks, but that is no reason for voting against what is clearly an improvement over the status quo.”

Of the 171 votes against the resolution, 147 were from Democrats. Twenty-two of the 24 nay votes from Republicans were members of the Appropriations Committee, infamous for its swollen earmarks, although not all on the committee opposed the measure. Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) had complained that the new requirement singled out appropriations bills but said that he would not whip the vote. Most earmarks are anonymously slipped into spending bills by individual appropriators without debate. The 2006 Congressional Pig Book identified 9,963 pork projects costing a record $29 billion in the fiscal 2006 appropriations bills.

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