So says the group Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), which ranked Utah 18th highest in pork per capita in its latest "Pig Book."
Utah, which ranked 24th last year, got $39.51 per person in federal pork projects in fiscal year 2006, the group says, higher than the national average of $30.55 per person. In all, Utah got 88 projects the group says add up to $97.5 million.
That "pork," as the group calls it, is part of a shower of earmarks Congress keeps pushing through, despite the high costs of the Iraq war and the disaster of Hurricane Katrina that are still costing America.
Congress passed nearly 10,000 earmarks in fiscal year 2006 bills, totaling some $29 billion dollars, according to the group.
"Pork-barrel spending illustrates and contributes to the meltdown of spending restraint in Washington," said the group's president, Tom Schatz. "Instead of averting an impending fiscal crisis, members of Congress are grabbing the spoils to support their own re-election."
The Pig Book's release comes as Congress is debating whether to comprehensively reform lobbying laws and rules on earmarks, a process by which a member of Congress specifies where an agency or department should spend its money.
This year's book goes after Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, who they singled out three times for projects he pushed through for his home state. He is the only member of the delegation on an appropriations committee, and the only Utahn, to be mentioned by name in the book.
CAGW says Bennett's push for $14 million in agricultural appropriations is pork, including $300,000 for the Oquirrh Institute, the think tank started by former Gov. Mike Leavitt. CAGW says in its book that taxpayers have "contributed" $550,000 to the think tank since 2004.
CAGW also targets $1 million Bennett pushed through Congress for a distance education initiative for the Western Governors University. The money came from the defense appropriations bill, though CAGW questions whether the funding is defense related.
Lastly, CAGW says nearly $14 million Bennett got out of the Interior appropriations bill is pork, including some $750,000 for the Range Creek/Rainbow Glass Ranch, which should have gone through a competitive process and not just received money.
CAGW spokesman Tom Finnigan says earmarks bypass any credible process to doling out federal funds.
"If the project is worthy, it should have no problem getting approval through the competitive process," Finnigan says.
Bennett's office says the senator is proud of the money he's brought home for Utah.
One item cited by CAGW is $4 million for the Utah Public Lands Artifact Preservation Act, which Bennett's office heralds as a way to ensure that ancient artifacts do not deteriorate in the "closets and filing cabinets where they're currently housed."
"CAGW is ignoring the tremendous cost to the government, which would result in failing to protect these valuable historic items," Bennett spokeswoman Mary Jane Collipriest said. "I'm sorry someone's led them astray in their analysis and failed to provide them with complete information about these worthwhile Utah projects."
The group also handed out several "awards" for various reasons, such as the "Flushing our Money Down the Toilet Award," to Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., for a $1 million earmark for a Waterfree Urinal Conservation Initiative.
tburr@sltrib.com
