Nathan Key

Pork Projects are those little line items that creep into legislation as Congressmen fight to represent the people they've been elected by. Unfortunately, a process that was supposed to help Congress truly practice representative democracy has become a legalized system of bribery where Representatives are allowed to add their pet projects to a bill in order to make it more favorable to them- even if their own interests have little or nothing to do with the legislation in question.

Pork Projects are becoming more and more of a problem because (as we've seen with the Cap & Trade and upcoming Healthcare Legislations) bills that could be concisely worded and clearly understood are being transformed into 120 page documents that no one has time to read and understand fully before voting occurs. This means that legislation is being passed without our Representatives even reading about it or knowing exactly what they are voting on.

President Obama promised to mandate transparency procedures that would require 72 hours of public access to each bill in its entirety- but we've yet to see this happen and probably never will. Of course the reality is, I don't think the Executive Branch actually has the Authority to tell the House when or how it will vote on bills, but even if it did I doubt that it would really follow through on it.

This is basically because of three reasons:

1. Congressmen Won't Give Up The Ability to Represent Their People

Killing one's private agendas means giving up an arena where one can fight for a "piece of the pie." What I mean is, ever year there's only so much money (supposedly) and so many bills (supposedly) that can be distributed or voted on (respectively). With limited resources, one has to do everything possible to maximize the representation of the community at the national level. That means writing as many little line items as possible, whenever possible. No one will want to give up that ability. It means being less effective.

2. Congressmen Won't Give Up The Ability To Bribe Other Congressmen

If I want Bill A passed and the only way to do it is to add in line item C, D, & F (to appease the interests of my fellow representatives), you'd better believe that I'd want to keep the ability to add in those extra perks to make my bill more appealing.

3. Congress Needs a Back Door to Slip in Big Government

I know this will probably make me sound paranoid, but the reality is "Fly By Night Legislation" happens. It's tricky, it's devious, and it's real. The Patriot Act is a good example of "Back Door" legislation that was passed with all sorts of unconstitutional and inappropriate laws in it. It went through because the big ideas included in the legislation didn't sound so bad. It was passed during a time of heightened fear and patriotism (notice what they named it, although I'd argue that the Patriot Act is one of the more unpatriotic pieces of Legislation ever passed) and so a lot of things slipped through the cracks that wouldn't have if they were saved for an individual bill or given a little bit of "sunlight" and exposure.

Needless to say, unless some very brave individuals set up to change the system- Pork is probably here to stay. And it will only get worse as time goes on.

Leave a Reply