Citizen’s Against Government Waste has released its annual “Pig Book Summary,” in which it compiles a list of earmarks requested by Congress. According to its numbers, the Tea Party Caucus asked for more than $1 billion in pork during Fiscal Year 2010 – the requests were made last year and are the latest records available. And among members of the caucus, Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg requested the most. <a href="http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2010/12/tea-party-caucu.php" title="From the National Journal: “>From the National Journal:
Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) takes the prize as the Tea Partier with his name on the most earmarks. Rehberg’s office requested funding for 88 projects, either solely or by co-signing earmarks requests with Sens. Max Baucus (D) and Jon Tester (D), at a cost of $100,514,200. On his own, Rehberg requested 20 earmarks valued at more than $9.6 million.
According to the Pig Book, Baucus requested $137,279,900 in earmarks during Fiscal Year 2010 and Tester requested a bit more, coming in at $137,543,950. Montana ranked seventh nationally for “pork per capita.”
Meanwhile, Tea Party favorite and South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint announced this week that he is already targeting four Democratic senators who are up for reelection in 2012, including Tester. DeMint’s reasoning: They voted against an earmark ban.
Stay Connected with the Daily Roundup.
Sign up for our newsletter and get the best of the Beacon delivered every day to your inbox.