Porkbusters

Porkbusters is an effort led by mostly conservative and libertarian bloggers to cut pork barrel spending by the U.S. Congress in order to help pay for projects.

The effort was launched on September 18, 2005 [http://instapundit.com/archives/025618.php] , after the massive scale of the reconstruction effort necessary for the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina had became apparent. It quickly picked up steam as blogger Glenn Reynolds (aka "Instapundit") began promoting the idea and the influential-though-anonymous blogger NZ Bear set up a website showing which members of the U.S. Congress had committed to cutting projects in their own districts to help offset the disaster recovery effort.

Reynolds encourages his readers to send him copies of pork-cutting letters they send to their representatives and Senators, along with the responses from the elected officials. He then posts these on his website under the heading "Porkbusters Update".

In operation for less than six weeks, as of October 13, 2005 the project has already managed to garner $84,000,000 in specific budget cut commitments out of various Representatives and non-specific agreements out of many more. In addition, those Representatives who have been contacted and have negative responses are highlighted and their contact information is made available for their constituents.

Coburn Amendment

The Porkbusters project has recently endorsed the Coburn Amendment. Officially titled the "Coburn Amendment to the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development appropriations bill" ( [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.03058: HR 3058] ), the Coburn Amendment was a bill proposed by Senator Tom Coburn that would divert money from the transportation bill, specifically the $220 million for the Gravina Island Bridge in Alaska to the reconstruction of the "Twin Spans" bridge [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=30.181044,-89.822502&spn=0.185801,0.253098&t=h] in Louisiana. This amendment has also gained the support of liberal blogger Markos Zúniga. [http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/10/20/02131/717] . The amendment was defeated 82-15.

Next phase

On October 30, 2005, N.Z. Bear posted an entry to his blog entitled [http://www.truthlaidbear.com/archives/2005/10/30/the_next_phase_of_porkbusters.php#001729 The Next Phase of Porkbusters] . In it he states

This phase indeed seems to be progressing, if slowly. As of December 9, 2005, Senator Coburn has the Porkbuster logo on his [http://coburn.senate.gov/ site] , along with a separate page listing his [http://coburn.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Legislation.PorkBusters Porkbuster efforts] .

In August 2006, Porkbusters, Talking Points Memo and other blogs from across the political spectrum worked together to support the proposed Obama-Coburn Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (S. 2590). "Secret holds" placed on the bill were eventually tracked down to Senators Ted Stevens and Robert Byrd. The bill became law in September 2006.

Media coverage

* [http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1130133318133590.xml Porkbusters progress to date in the Times Picayune]
* [http://thepoliticalteen.net/2005/10/02/reynoldssources/ Glenn Reynolds on Reliable Sources on CNN talking about Porkbusters]
* [http://thepoliticalteen.net/2005/09/29/porkpundit/ Video of Glenn Reynolds on Kudlow and Company]
* [http://www.wkrn.com/Global/story.asp?S=3901170&nav=1ugO Porkbuster coverage on Channel 2 news Nashville]
* [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4863761 NPR story on Porkbuster efforts in Bozeman, Montana]
* [http://thepoliticalteen.net/2005/09/21/porkbusterscnn/ CNN covering Porkbuster Project]

External links

* [http://porkbusters.org porkbusters.org] Official website
* [http://instapundit.com/mt/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=porkbusters Porkbuster posts at Instapundit] — Contains many responses from Government Representatives
* [http://instapundit.com/lawrev/Coburn2085.pdf A PDF of the Coburn Amendment]
* [http://porkbusters.net/ Pork-related news items at Porkbusters.net]