AFTER digesting piles of Thanksgiving turkey, the United States Congress will finalise a 14lb spending Bill next week so stuffed with politicians’ pet “pork-barrel” projects that it has given President Bush indigestion.

The $388 billion (£205 billion) Bill, which officially is to fund most of the US government departments for the 2005 fiscal year, has demonstrated the right of senior members on Capitol Hill to earmark billions for “special projects”.

Most have nothing to do with financing federal agencies, but everything to do with pleasing constituents. This year spending watchdogs with the time and desire to read the 3,000-page Bill have counted nearly 12,000 projects costing almost $16 billion, but with almost zero relevance to government. Spending Bills have long been loaded with “pork”, but the enormous array inserted into this year’s legislation, at a time of record deficits, has made spending watchdogs bark particularly loudly.

In Tennessee, for example, $2 million of taxpayers’ money will build a Fiery Gizzard Trail. In Alaska, $443,000 has been set aside to develop “baby food containing salmon”. Maine gets $236,000 for blueberry research. In Missouri, the state’s Pork Producers’ Federation will receive more than $1 million to see if pig waste can become an energy source.

Mr Bush told reporters after the Thanksgiving holiday that he backed the Bill, which will be sent to him next week for signing, but added: “Obviously, there’s going to be things in these big Bills that I don’t particularly care for.”

He repeated a refrain of many presidents, calling on Congress to pass legislation that would give him a line- by-line veto, allowing him to delete offending items individually. At present, presidents can veto only an entire Bill, but Congress voting for this would be like turkeys voting for Thanksgiving.

Congress is supposed to pass 13 appropriation Bills every year, covering most government departments, but in recent years, as Capitol Hill has become more partisan, it has rarely met its October 1 deadline. In six of the past seven years, including this one, the Senate and House of Representatives have had to pass massive “omnibus” Bills throwing together all the unfinished spending Bills into one package. Because the Bills have become so huge, there is little scrutiny.

Tom Harkin, a senior Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, was able to secure an array of funding for his home state, including $135,000 for an arts centre in the tiny city of Waterloo, Iowa, $500,000 for a museum of history of science and $450,000 for a school injury prevention programme.

Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, has issued more than 50 press releases boasting of the millions he had got for his home state, including $3 million for research on the genetics of grapes.

FISTFUL OF DOLLARS

• California: $150,000 for the Girl Scouts’ Golden Valley Council bridge project
• Wisconsin: $70,000 for a Paper Industry Hall of Fame
• Iowa: $800,000 for “soybean rust research”
• Oregon: $8 million to rehabilitate “historic cafeteria building” at Crater Lake national park
• Pennsylvania: about $100,000 for weather museum in Punxsutawney
• Kansas: $100,000 for a swimming pool in Ottawa

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