Congress opened the floodgates on pork-barrel spending in 2018

Earmarks are experiencing an unfortunate revival in Washington. After House Republicans failed to extend a 2011 moratorium on congressmen tacking home-state projects on to spending bills, Congress oversaw a surge in earmarked spending with the passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act earlier this year.

The 2018 Congressional Pig Book, released on Wednesday by the think tank and advocacy group Citizens Against Government Waste, documents the government’s ballooning excess and waste. In fiscal year 2018, the number of earmarks passed by Congress increased by 42.3 percent since FY 2017, totaling $14.7 billion in costs — a 116.2 percent increase.