2023 Congressional Pig Book

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The 31st edition of the Congressional Pig Book tracks the rise of earmarks to near-record levels of spending in the second year since members of Congress restored the practice.

After an 11-year moratorium, earmarks were revived for fiscal year (FY) 2022, first in a favorable vote by House Democrats on February 26, 2021, then by House Republicans, who agreed to restore them on March 17, 2021, and then by Senate Democrats, who followed suit on April 26, 2021. 

Senate Republicans voted to uphold the moratorium on April 21, 2021, but the agreement was nonbinding, and many of them received earmarks.  These arrangements were maintained for earmarks in FY 2023.

Since 1991, Citizens Against Government Waste has chronicled how lawmakers have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on pork-barrel spending through the process of congressional earmarking. CAGW’s Earmark Database collects almost 30 years of work identifying wasteful spending projects and makes the information available online in one searchable database for the very first time. The earmark database is a powerful tool for lawmakers, citizens, and researchers alike. Also see 2023 Pork Per Capita

The revived earmarks, despite a futile attempt to cover them up by designating them as “Community Project Funding,” are similar to the old earmarks that were included in the appropriations bills passed by Congress during FYs 2008-2010, which required that the names of the members who received earmarks be listed in each bill. 

The rules are as follows:  each member of the House of Representatives is allowed to request up to 15 projects (senators face no such limitation); requests are posted online; a list of projects funded is published when the subcommittee or committee marks up a bill; for-profit entities are not eligible; and members certify that they, their spouse, and their family have no financial interest in the project. LOL

The 2023 Congressional Pig Book 2023. 

This year’s release exposes 7,396 earmarks, an increase of 43.9 percent from the 5,138 in FY 2022, at a cost of $26.1 billion, an increase of 38.1 percent from the $18.9 billion in earmarks in FY 2022. 

The cost is $2.9 billion, or 10 percent lower than the record $29 billion in FY  2006.

 Since FY 1991, CAGW has identified 124,212 earmarks costing $437.5 billion.

If you’re interested read the PDF here or visit the website

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