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Who Ya Gonna Call? Porkbusters!

Coalition of lawmakers works to cancel wasteful spending

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, June 9) -- Calling themselves "Porkbusters," a coalition of legislators and activists has worked since the early 1990s to combat pork-barrel spending by sponsoring amendments in Congress to kill specific items and calling attention to unauthorized items.

In Congress, the group is led by Reps. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), David Minge (D-Minn.), and Arizona Sen. John McCain. Other members of Congress join the group on a floating basis. On the outside, Citizens Against Government Waste, Citizens For A Sound Economy and the National Taxpayers Union have joined forces to support anti-pork efforts.

But with many members eager for a slice of the pie, and, just as important, wary of voting against their colleagues' pet projects, the Porkbusters have had only moderate success canceling or rescinding spending they consider wasteful. The group backed amendments that killed some $427 million in the 104th Congress.

That spending included $20 million for a gas-cooled reactor, which was opposed by the National Academy of Sciences and the Department of Energy; $350 million earmarked to demolish a recently renovated highway in Manhattan; and $50 million eliminated from Department of Defense VIP aircraft fleet.

The Porkbusters also pushed through new House rules to require any spending not OK'ed by authorizing committees to be listed separately in appropriations bills. And a new Porkbusters-backed rule has opened appropriations conference committee proceedings, where many pork provisions are born, to the public.

The group's latest initiative is a bill, H.R. 1318, that would create a government waste commission. Modeled on the successful approach used to close military bases in the late 1980s, the commission would compile a package of recommended rescissions, which lawmakers would deal with in one up-or-down vote.

That would allow lawmakers to avoid the political fallout of voting against specific spending items backed by their colleagues.

While they can't claim full credit, the Porkbusters' greatest triumph, and greatest hope, remains passage of the line-item veto, now awaiting a Supreme Court decision on its constitutionality.