Congress sets record in education 'pork'
By Jon Breece | September 24, 2003Members of the U.S. Congress brought home the bacon for universities and colleges in record-setting amounts during fiscal year 2003. Overall pork spending -- money that is earmarked for a project and thereby exempt from the normal Congressional appropriations process -- on academic projects rose 10 percent over previous 2002 figures while additional unplanned, discretionary spending on defense-related university projects shot up 68 percent. Congress appropriated more than $2 billion dollars in pork project spending for colleges and universities in the current fiscal year which ends next week, according to a recent study conducted by the Chronicle of Higher Education.


