Pork barrel is an American slang expression for a government treasury. It originated in the 1800’s, when the word pork became slang for government money spent on local projects. At that time, farmers preserved pork by keeping it salted in barrels, and so bills distributing this money were called “pork barrel bills.”
A legislator customarily votes for expenditures in other districts, even though he or she may think them unnecessary, in order to have legislators from those districts vote for projects in his or her district (see Logrolling). Defenders of this system point out that pork-barrel projects, such as river and harbor improvements, increase the country’s wealth by providing more public facilities. However, excessive pork-barrel practices have led to movements to give the president of the United States the power to veto individual items in a spending bill without killing the whole bill. In 1996, Congress enacted a law that gave the president such a power beginning in 1997. But the Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional in 1998.
