The 2018 Congressional Pig Book
Summary gives a snapshot of each appropriations bill and
details the juiciest projects culled from the complete Pig
Book.
Congress had set the stage for a significant increase in every
category of spending when the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) of 2018 was approved
on February 8, 2018. This legislation obliterated the spending caps set
in the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA) and increased spending by $143 billion, or 13.4
percent, in FY 2018 compared to FY 2017.
Citizens Against Government Waste’s (CAGW) 2018 Congressional Pig Book exposes
232 earmarks in FY 2018, an increase of 42.3 percent from the 163 in FY
2017. The cost of earmarks in FY 2018 is $14.7 billion, an increase of
116.2 percent from the $6.8 billion in FY 2017, or nearly nine times greater
than the increase in discretionary spending. The only other time the cost
has at least doubled was FYs 1992-1993. Since FY 1991, CAGW has identified
110,861 earmarks costing $344.5 billion.
