add up to a substantial total. A nonprofit watchdog organization, called Citizens against Government Waste,

produces an annual report, the Pig Bookthat attempts to quantify the amount of pork-barrel spending,

focusing on items that only one member of Congress requested, that were passed into law without any public

hearings, or that serve only a local purpose. Whether any specific item qualifies as pork can be controversial.

The 2021 Congressional Pig Book identified 285 earmarks in FY 2021, with a cost of $16.8 billion. Recent

growth in earmarks and their cost is apparent: in FY 2017, there were 163 earmarks at a cost of $6.8 billion.

Hence, in only four years, there was a 75% increase in the number of earmarks and a 147% increase in the

cost of those earmarks.

Logrolling, an action in which all members of a group of legislators agree to vote for a package of otherwise

unrelated laws that they individually favor, can encourage pork barrel spending. For example, if one member
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