FEDERAL FEEDING FRENZY SURPLUS STIRS APPETITES FOR PORK-BARREL PROJECTS.

Byline: Bill Hillburg Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - With Congress rushing to approve an overdue federal budget, House and Senate members are lining up at the pig trough in record numbers and gobbling up billions of taxpayer dollars to finance pet pork-barrel projects.

Critics say pork has also contributed to a 13-year imbalance of payments for Californians, who currently receive only 89 cents back for every tax dollar they send to Washington. Most of this year's excessive spending is targeted for other states represented by lawmakers with seniority, key committee posts and an affinity for bringing home the bacon.

``The excessive fodder and trickery have never been greater,'' said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has so far identified $13 billion worth of alleged pork in completed appropriations bills for defense, energy and water projects, the Interior Department, the Treasury Department and government operations.

More pork is likely before Congress finishes work this week on the rest of the budget's 13 spending bills.

``The spigot is running at a rate I have not seen in all my years in the Senate,'' McCain admonished his colleagues during a recent floor speech. He charged his fellow lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans included, with engaging in a spending frenzy sparked by a budget surplus.

Rep. Edward Royce, R-Fullerton, a leading critic of pork-barrel spending, said that the frenzy annually reaches a peak as House and Senate conference committees meet to resolve spending differences and pass final appropriations bills.

``A spending bill should go through channels,'' said Royce, who stressed that seeking funds for local projects does not automatically qualify as pork barreling.

``Members need to bring up their requests in committees and have them debated openly on their merits. Pork does not see the light of day. It gets added to bills at the 11th hour and it's an egregious fraud committed against taxpayers.''

Royce further defines pork as funding not requested by the administration or a federal agency or money in excess of those budget requests.

McCain, who has spoken out as each final spending bill has reached the Senate floor, has produced detailed lists of pork. His compilations include a $1 million outlay to help residents along the Missouri River mark the 200th anniversary of Lewis and Clark's exploratory expedition and $500,000 to fund a National First Ladies Museum in Dayton, Ohio.

Royce - who, along with McCain, belongs to the Congressional Porkbusters Coalition and advocates major reforms of the way lawmakers do business - says the practice has hurt California.

Citizens Against Government Waste, a watchdog group allied with McCain's and Royce's efforts, estimated that last year pork spending averaged $19.23 per person nationwide. California's per capita outlay was $16.55, which ranked it 33rd out of 50 states.

By comparison, Alaskans raked in $237.76 per person in pork while West Virginians wallowed in $53.97 per capita.

This year's spending bills are rife with Alaska and West Virginia pork projects, including a $176,000 outlay to finance Alaska's Reindeer Herders Association.

Royce and other critics note that much of Alaska's pork is reaped by its Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and has a major impact on all spending measures. West Virginia's Sen. Robert Byrd is the panel's ranking Democrat.

By comparison, California's House and Senate delegations are penny pinchers, with only a few small projects making McCain's lists.

But pork can also be a concept limited to the eyes of the beholder, as evidenced by McCain's recent criticism of a $4 million Defense Department appropriation for California's Angel Gate Academy. The Arizona Republican asked how such an outlay could be justified ``when 12,000 military families are on food stamps.''

A far different view was offered by California National Guard Maj. Jim Estes, supervisor of the Angel Gate program at Camp San Luis Obispo on the Central Coast. He noted that Angel Gate, a joint effort of the National Guard and the Los Angeles Unified School District, offers hope, instruction and a much-needed change of venue to 1,000 middle schoolers each year.

Angel Gate was launched in the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles riots and has been championed by Rep. Julian Dixon, D-Los Angeles. He secured this year's $4 million federal outlay, which is matched by the state.

Youngsters from LAUSD's middle schools, who are identified as at-risk, spend four weeks in the camplike setting, supervised by National Guard counselors and attending classes run by Cuesta Community College. At the end of their four-week stay, Angel Gate alums get follow-up help at their LAUSD school.

``You can't believe the positive changes we see in these kids,'' said Estes, a former teacher. ``And Angel Gate fits in perfectly with the Guard's primary mission of community service. I spent three weeks on duty in South Central with my unit during the riots in 1992 and it changed by life. Now I'm able to help kids from those same neighborhoods with changing their lives.''

The ``eyes of the beholder'' argument was also raised earlier this year by Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, whose spending for Inland Empire projects was singled out for criticism by Citizens Against Government Waste.

``Pork barrel is that which is at least 100 miles away from your home,'' said Lewis. ``To critics, pork-barrel spending is any kind of spending you disagree with.''

Neither Royce nor McCain expects to force colleagues to undertake a no-pork diet with admonishing speeches. Instead, they advocate a number of reforms, including a ban on inserting spending proposals into the budget without full consideration, starting at the subcommittee level.

Royce also supports giving more federal money to state and local governments in block form and letting local officials determine spending priorities.

Another reform - backed by Royce, Rep. David Dreier, R-Covina, and a bipartisan group of House and Senate members - would have the government run on a two-year budget. Proponents argue that biennial budgeting would allow for more careful consideration of spending and end the annual end-of-session frenzy that fosters pork barreling.

Foes argue that two-year budgets would give House members only one shot at spending per two-year term and ostensibly only a single trip to the pork trough.

PORK BY THE BARREL

Here are some outlays included in the federal government's $1.8 trillion budget for 2000-01:

Orangutan Foundation: $1.5 million

Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund: $1.5 million

University of South Carolina Police Command College (Moscow, Russia): $750,000

Relocate campus of American University (Cairo, Egypt): $35 million

International Fertilizer Development Center (Muscle Shoals, Ala.): $4 million

Expand use of cranberries in diet of U.S. combat troops: $1 million

Produce CD-ROM titled ``We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution'': $150,000

Native Hawaiian Education Councils: $500,000

Build carriage house at home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Cambridge, Mass.): $487,000

National First Ladies Museum (Dayton, Ohio): $500,000

Communications equipment for 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics: $14.8 million

Refurbish the Vulcan Statue (Birmingham, Ala.): $1.5 million

Acquire Ferry Farm, George Washington's boyhood home in Virginia: $1.6 million

Weed control study at Montana State University: $500,000

Missouri River activities for Lewis and Clark Bicentennial: $1 million

California Train Interpretive Center (Sacramento): $200,000

Reindeer Herders Association (Alaska): $176,000

City of Chicago wilderness study: $450,000

Spruce bark beetle task force action plan (Alaska): $7.5 million

Study of drainage problems in Winchester, Ky.: $250,000

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Box: PORK BY THE BARREL (See text)