WSU Share Of ‘Pork’ $7.5 Million, Watchdog Group Says But Nethercutt Spokesman Calls ‘Pork-Barrel’ Label Laughable

Washington State University received $7.5 million in “procedural pork-barrel spending,” according to a report issued Wednesday by Citizens Against Government Waste.

The self-described watchdog organization called WSU’s money source, U.S. Department of Agriculture research grants, a “popular way to bring home the bacon.”

Ken Lisius, a spokesman for Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., called the “pork” label laughable, noting the money went toward the WSU’s Animal Disease Biotechnology Facility in Pullman.

One of the group’s criteria for pork is congressional funding of a project that President Clinton didn’t ask for, Lisius noted.

“They have to reevaluate the criteria they use,” Lisius said. “The priorities between this president and this particular Congress are very different.”

Charlie Powell, a spokesman for the WSU College of Veterinary Medicine, said the building will house WSU’s veterinary microbiology and pathology departments and faculty offices for its new teaching hospital.

Planning and funding for the building has been in the works for the last decade, Powell said. “I just know this has been through every conceivable peer-review process,” Powell said of the funding.

Department Chairman David Prieur said the facility is researching such maladies as mad cow disease.

In its 1997 “Congressional Pig Book Summary,” the citizens group also cited four alleged pork projects Sen. Slade Gorton snagged for Washington state as chairman of the Senate Interior Appropriations subcommittee:

$1,116,000 for roof repair at Mount Rainier National Park.

$308,000 for road repair at Lake Chelan National Recreation Area.

$270,000 for Elwha River fish restoration at Olympic National Park.

$200,000 for the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group.

Cynthia Bergman, a Gorton spokeswoman, said the study was a helpful guide to government waste, but questioned the pork label.

“His projects hardly constitute wasteful government spending,” she said.

Gorton was the only Washington or Idaho congressman mentioned by name in the group’s report.

Overall, the organization ranked Washington 31st on a pork-per-capita scale with $8.06 per person, saying the state received $44.5 million in pork funding in fiscal 1996-97.

Idaho was ranked 17th on the per capita scale with $13.83 per person going to extraneous government spending. Idaho got $16.4 million in pork funding, the report said.

The national average was $9.08.

Oregon led the Pacific Northwest with $32.29 per capita, good enough for fourth in the nation.

To be classified as “pork,” the funding must be requested by just one member of Congress, and not be competitively awarded or requested by the president. The funding must exceed the president’s budget request, not be the subject of congressional hearings and only serve a local special interest.

During a Wednesday news conference that featured a live pig and a 6-foot man dressed in a pink pig suit, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, said much of the excess spending came in the last half of 1996, when representatives were anxious to go home.

The top pork-per-capita states were Hawaii with $131.01, Alaska with $114.23, and Montana with $49.29.

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