Quotes

"House Democrats are making headway on their goals of slashing pork-barrel spending in half and disclosing more information about spending on lawmakers' pet projects, known as earmarks. But while spending on earmarks may be trimmed and more closely scrutinized this year, top Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi aren't exactly suffering.In the Bay Area, the split in what lawmakers received was striking. Pelosi out-earmarked all local House members, but the three Bay Area members of the Appropriations Committee also did very well: Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland got $32 million, Rep. Sam Farr of Carmel received $24.3 million, and Rep. Mike Honda of San Jose got $18.1 million. By contrast, Rep. Pete Stark of Fremont received just under $5 million." http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/09/02/MN97RQ7PU.DTL