Congress steers spending to aliens, obese GIs

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Taxpayers are funding a telescope to search for space aliens and research devoted to improving the shelf-life of vegetables, part of $13.2 billion in special-interest projects the U.S. Congress approved last year, a private watchdog group said on Wednesday.

The billions of dollars, attached to spending bills for the
Department of Defense and Department of
Homeland Security, were detailed in the annual "Pig Book" report compiled by Citizens Against Government Waste.

As two potbellied pigs named Winnie and Dudley munched on rice cakes, group President Tom Schatz chastised congressional lawmakers for what he called wasteful spending of tax dollars.

Citizens Against Government Waste brands as "pork projects" funds inserted into bills without congressional oversight, money not awarded competitively, serving only a local or special interest or requested by only one chamber of Congress.

Referring to the $1 million for a telescope searching for extra-terrestrial intelligence, Schatz said, "It's not clear how the Department of Defense was going to protect us against an invasion" by space aliens.

In this Chinese year of the pig, the $13.2 billion attached to fiscal 2007 spending bills paled when compared to the $29 billion in pork the group said it identified a year ago.

Last year's Republican-controlled Congress only passed two of the 11 spending bills funding government activities, greatly reducing the opportunities for inserting special-interest money. When Democrats took over Congress in January, they passed the remaining funding, but with a moratorium on the "earmarks."

But the real test of Congress' appetite for pork will come soon, as lawmakers begin writing next year's spending bills.

Of the $1.35 million to be spent by the military to study obesity among soldiers, Schatz quipped, "We thought that was supposed to be taken care of in basic training."

The group took Sen. Patty Murray (news, bio, voting record), a Washington Democrat, to task for winning $1.65 million to research ways to increase vegetables' shelf-life. Schatz's group said the money is being directed to California-based Arcadia Biosciences, which has a facility in Seattle.

Murray argued that the
Pentagon supports the project and it was a "vital research program that has the potential to greatly benefit our brave men and women stationed far abroad who have difficulty purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables."

The watchdog group also criticized $5.5 million for the University of California's Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center to study the effects of alcohol and drug abuse on the brain. Winemaking king Gallo, 97, died on Tuesday.

Sens. Ted Stevens (news, bio, voting record), an Alaska Republican, and Daniel Inouye (news, bio, voting record), a Hawaii Democrat, "served more than their fair share of bacon" to their states, the group said. The two are the senior members of the Senate Appropriations panel that oversees military spending.

Alaska received $209.9 million in pork, a 127 percent increase over the $92.4 million last year, according to the report.