Porkbusters

Porkbusters is an effort led by mostly conservative and libertarian bloggers to cut pork barrel spending by the U.S. Congress in order to help pay for Hurricane Katrina recovery projects.

The effort was launched on 2005-09-18[1], when the massive scale of the needed reconstruction effort became apparent. It quickly picked up steam as blogger Glenn Reynolds (aka "The Instapundit") began promoting the idea and the influential-though-anonymous blogger N.Z. Bear set up a website showing which members of the U.S. Congress had commmitted to cutting projects in their own districts to help offset the disaster recovery effort.

Reynolds encourages his readers to send him copies of pork-cutting letters they send to their representatives and Senators, along with the responses from the elected officials. He then posts these on his website under the heading "Porkbusters Update".

In operation for less than six weeks, as of October 13, 2005 the project has already managed to garner $84,000,000 in specific budget cut commitments out of various Representatives and non-specific agreements out of many more. In addition, those Representatives who have been contacted and have negative responses are highlighted and their contact information is made available for their constituents.

Coburn Amendment

The Porkbusters project has recently endorsed the Coburn Amendment. Officially titled the Coburn Amendment to the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development appropriations bill (HR 3058), the Coburn Amendment is a bill proposed by Senator Tom Coburn that would divert money from the transportation bill, specifically the $220 million for the Bridge to Nowhere to the reconstruction of the "Twin Spans" bridge[2] in Louisiana. This amendment has also gained the support of liberal blogger Markos Zúniga.[3]

Media coverage

• Glenn Reynolds on Reliable Sources on CNN talking about Porkbusters
• Video of Glenn Reynolds on Kudlow and Company
• Porkbuster coverage on Channel 2 news Nashville
• NPR story on Porkbuster efforts in Bozeman, Mont
• CNN covering Porkbuster Project

External links

• Official website
• Porkbuster posts at Instapundit — Contains many responses from Government Representatives
• A PDF of the Coburn Amendment