Why is this project pork?

Citizens Against Government Waste invites you to search for what they consider pork projects in this handy feature that brought up a portion of our own Chelsea Street Bridge repair appropriated under the Homeland Security budget for FY 2005.

Everything you ever wanted to know about pork is just a couple of clicks away. We must admit we hadn't thought a lot about it other than an occasional grunt of disapproval. But Citizens Against Government Waste is on the case with their 2005 Congressional Pig Book. Presumably that $1 million for the Chelsea Street Bridge (chart below) appropriated under Homeland Security for FY 2005 is water over the dam -- slops over the sty fence?

NBR, H = No Budget Request, only requested by the House, in this Citizens Against Government Waste pork citation of $1,000,000 budgeted under Homeland Security for work on the Chelsea Street Bridge for FY 2005.

Why does CAGW consider that $1 million of federal funding for our bridge pork?  They explain:

The pork label is a result of how a project receives funding and is not a subjective judgment of a project’s worth. While CAGW is not judging the merit of projects included in our Pig Book, the point remains that many of these projects are local projects.  If a local project receives federal funding it should be acquired through the federal competitive system. If members of Congress insist on skirting the rules to get funding for a project, even for a seemingly important project, the resulting breakdown in accountability throws open the door to almost any kind of project.

Pork-barrel projects are those that get federal funding by circumventing established budgetary procedures.To qualify as pork and merit inclusion in the Pig Book, a project must meet at least one of CAGW’s seven criteria.

The Chelsea Street Bridge project funding for FY 2005 was pork under their criteria because it was requested by only one chamber of Congress. Now what about that $8 million we wrote about in our previous post for FY 2006?  Is that NBR, H? Was it appropriated for HS?  Back to the googleboard.

Technorati tag:  porkbusters.

Comments

[Porkopolis]

I've put together a spreadsheet of 5,091 earmarks (all 50 States) as part of the analysis of the Highway Bill with respect to Ohio's pork.

Spreadsheet (in zip format): detailing $14,823,809,666 in earmarks can be found at:

http://porkopolis.blogspot.com/2005/09/5091-highway-porkbuster-earmarks.html