Lawmakers Defend Attacks Against Pet Projects

The idea of devoting $1.8 million to research controlling the smell of pig dung stinks to high heaven to opponents of Congress' proclivity for pork-barrel projects.

Tonya Huenink, student technician for the United States Department of Agriculture, works at Iowa State University's National Soil Tilth Laboratory Thursday, March 5, 2009, in Ames, Iowa. (AP Photo/ Nirmalendu Majumdar)

(AP)

"Pigs stink. We know why," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. "We know where they live. So is that a priority right now?"

Spending $380,000 in the middle of a severe recession to fix up lighthouses in Maine doesn't smell a lot better to Coburn and few other Republicans who day after day attack the 8,000 pet projects lawmakers have put into a bill setting a good part of the government's agenda for the next six months.

What's new is that more and more lawmakers are standing up to defend their earmarks as vital for people back home. Barack Obama promised during his presidential campaign to curb the practice and demanded that last month's $787 billion stimulus bill contain "not a single pet project."

"In farm country, manure and odor management are profoundly serious challenges that can be mitigated through scientific research," Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said in a Senate speech last week. His defense of swine odor research and a $5.7 million earmark for school construction in Iowa covers four pages in the Congressional Record.

It turns out that the National Swine Research and Information Center is a long-standing program at the Agriculture Department. Former President George W. Bush proposed eliminating it last year, but Harkin came to its rescue. In a state where the 20 million hogs easily outnumber the 3 million people, the stench of huge pig farming operations is a genuine problem, affecting people's health and property values.

With a few dozen exceptions, such as Coburn, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, most members of Congress seek earmarks. Lawmakers know the needs of their states and home districts better than administration officials. And it's not uncommon for administrations to unfairly play favorites.