What is what pork legislation?

Answer 1

"Pork-barrel" legislation, also called "earmarked spending" is additional spending tacked onto larger legislative bills, usually not associated with the bill, but added by a Legislator, usually as a boon to his constituent community.

"Pork-barrel" spending might be a community park, a unnecessary construction project, a location of a government or military facility, an expansion of a government or military facility, a grant for historic preservation, etc, etc for that congressman's state / district.

Constitutionally, this spending is illegal. And it certainly is immoral. It is essentially buying votes at the expense of the public, and should be considered reprehensible by all people who respect the rule of law.

Answer 2

Projects that allocate money to certain states. Representatives negotiate for federal dollars to be sent to their state to create jobs and bring revenue to their state. Bridges, construction and programs all fall under pork legislation. A prime example of pork was when the Alaskan senator negotiated for a bridge to be built to an uninhabited island just so he could create jobs.

Answer 3

Pork is whatever the other party decides to spend money on.


Of course, technically people simply mean "unnecessary" spending, that's such a subjective term that we're left with the first definition I offered in most cases.