pork barrel

A government project or appropriation that yields jobs or other benefits to a specific locale and patronage opportunities to its political representative.

[From pork barrel, barrel for storing pork, supply of money.]

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Government funding of something that benefits a particular district, whose legislator thereby wins favor with local voters. For example, Our senator knows the value of the pork barrel. This expression alludes to the fatness of pork, equated with political largesse since the mid-1800s. [c. 1900]

As an actual container for storing pig meat in brine, the pork barrel has been with us since the early days of the Republic. It seems to have been a measure of present and future prosperity. A farmer's almanac of 1801 urges readers to "mind our pork and cider barrels." A midcentury author states, "I hold a family to be in a desperate way, when the mother can see the bottom of the pork barrel." "I know our crops will be short next season," declares another almanac, "for the brine has all leaked out of the pork barrel!"

In the twentieth century, modern refrigeration made the actual pork barrel obsolete. But it took on new life in referring to political bills that bring home the bacon to a legislator's district and constituents. Pork had been used at least since the 1870s as a label for politically motivated federal funding for local projects like post offices. We read in the Congressional Record in regard to an 1888 rivers and harbors appropriation, "Has the pork been so cunningly divided amongst the members of the House in this bill that its final passage is assured?"

By 1909, pork barrel itself was making the rounds of Congress. An article that year explains that the Democratic Party "has periodically inveighed against the extravagance of the administration, but its representatives in the Legislature have exercised no critical surveillance over the appropriations. They have preferred to take for their own constituencies whatever could be got out of the congressional 'pork barrel.'" Similarly, an article in 1916 opposing a "trend towards national defense on the basis of the State militia" argues that it is "a triumph for the pork-barrel."

Even without ever having seen an actual pork barrel, we continue to use the term today for its vivid negative implications. A pork barrel suggests fat and grease, not only in its contents but also in those who reach for it.

Legislation that allocates government money to projects in a certain constituency. Particularly associated with US politics, where legislators seek to base military or transport facilities, and government agencies in their own constituency. Electoral prospects, especially for Congressmen, often depend on how much ‘pork’ they can divert to their home district, and members are reluctant to obstruct each other's pet projects in case their own are defeated. See also logrolling.

Pork barrel politics consist of trying to obtain appropriations for one's own district. Politicians consider fighting for their constituents' best interests virtuous, but fiscal conservatives, claiming the practice has led to unnecessary investments at taxpayers' expense, use the term in a derogatory manner. "Pork barrel" originally referred to American slaves' rushed attempts to obtain some of the pork given to them as a group in large barrels. The term entered the political vocabulary after the Civil War. Harbor and river improvements were classic examples of pork, later surpassed by defense contracts and highway construction.

Bibliography

Ferejohn, John A. Pork Barrel Politics: Rivers and Harbors Legislation, 1947–1968. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1974.

Appropriations made by a legislature for projects that are not essential but are sought because they pump money and resources into the local districts of the legislators. Local projects, such as dams, military bases, highways, housing subsidies, and job training, are often funded by pork-barrel legislation, which can be accomplished through logrolling. Successful pork-barrel legislators are likely to be reelected by their constituents.

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