What Does Pork Barrel Mean?

Pork barrel, or simply pork, is a metaphor for the appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district. The usage originated in American English. Scholars use it as a technical term regarding legislative control of local appropriations.

Why is it called pork-barrel?

Pork barrel originally came from storing meat. By the 1870s, references to "pork" were common in Congress, and the term was further popularized by a 1919 article by Chester Collins Maxey in the National Municipal Review, which reported on certain legislative acts known to members of Congress as "pork barrel bills".

What is a pork-barrel system?

Petitioners define the term "Pork Barrel System" as the "collusion between the Legislative and Executive branches of government to accumulate lump-sum public funds in their offices with unchecked discretionary powers to determine its distribution as political largesse."[