Leading Conservatives Demand Removal of All Pork Barrel Spending in FY 2006 Supplemental Appropriations

ALEXANDRIA, VA— The American Conservative Union, the nation's oldest and largest grassroots conservative lobbying organization, today joined with five leading conservative organizations (National Taxpayers Union, Citizens against Government Waste, the Club for Growth, the Heritage Foundation and Americans for Tax Reform) to demand that the Republican-controlled House and Senate exercise fiscal responsibility by removing all pork and unrelated spending in the Global War on Terror and Hurricane Relief Supplemental for FY 2006.

“The GOP-led Congress is shamelessly using the cover of the War on Terror to blackmail the president into signing off on tens of billions of dollars above his supplemental request to fund completely unrelated pork projects,” said David A. Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union. “Similarly exploited are the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which Congress uses to rationalize further profligacy unrelated to the Gulf reconstruction (one highway project is in Kauai, Hawaii).”

In recent years, Congress has repeatedly abused the supplemental appropriations process to ram through pet spending projects that cannot stand on their own merits. Today, the congressional definition of an “emergency” encompasses such dire needs as subsidizing profitable agribusinesses, to the tune of an additional $4 billion, on top of an annual $25 billion; rerouting a recently repaired and completely functional railroad in Mississippi, at a cost of $700 million, to benefit coastal developers and the casino industry; and a $1.5 million grant to the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies.

“How large does the Republican majority need to be before Republicans start acting like the responsible stewards of taxpayers’ money we thought we were electing?” Keene continued. “Indeed, it’s an open question whether Republicans today would exercise greater fidelity to conservative principles as the minority rather than the majority. Either way, one conclusion is unavoidable: conservatives can no longer minimize the repeated reckless spending of today’s Congress.”

For more information, see ACU's white paper, "Congress Continues to Abuse Emergency Appropriations Process," and the following two charts:

1. "Increase in Federal Debt since the 1994 Republican 'Revolution'"; and

2. "Federal Revenue and Spending since the 1994 Republican 'Revolution.'"