Government waste watchdogs say the lobbying scandals on Capitol Hill have created the best opportunity yet to get rid of pork barrel spending.
New Hampshire Senator John Sununu has co-sponsored a bill to crack down on earmarks.
Congressman Bass may soon follow in the House.
NHPR correspondent Julie Donnelly reports from Washington.
What do Jack Abramoff, Alaska's bridge to nowhere and Congressman Randy Duke's bribery scandal have in common?
They're driving a movement to get rid of so -called earmarks.
Budget analysts say Earmarks, better known as pork barrel spending, cost the federal governement over forty five billion dollars last year.
And critics say the pork barrel process - often a last minute inclusion into a must pass appropriations bill - is more like a clandestine papal election than american democracy.
Senator John Sununu paints the scene:
It's almost christmas, and senators are anxious to get out of town. They mill around the cloakroom, while staff try to decipher the special earmark provisions
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Senator Sununu and a bipartisan group of senators are filing a bill to change that.
It would force Senators to attach their names to any special project they want to fund.
And it would allow Senators to challenge any earmark with a so-called point of order.
Then the senator who wants the challenged program would have to convince fifty nine of his colleagues to vote in favor of it.
Similar efforts are underway in the House.
2nd District Congressman Charles Bass says he wants to create a reform caucus to address the issue.
Bass had said he was confident the new majority leader would crack down on pork, but Representative John Boehner has recently said he opposes getting rid of earmarks.
Congressman Bass says he plans to keep up the pressure on Boehner.
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One difficulty in getting rid of special projects is that voters have come to expect them - as proof that their congressman is doing a good job for the state.
Tom Shatt from Citzens Against Government Waste says that voters need to be educated about the true cost of pork.
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Many of the projects classified as pork are worthy - say money for hospitals, universities, or environmental projects.
Federal money routinely comes into New Hampshire for conservation projects for example.
And Eric Aldrich from the Nature Conservancy says Senator Judd Gregg has been instrumental is getting funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.
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Senator Sununu says he and Senator Gregg would still be able to stump for conservation programs - they'll just have to go through a more open process.
And Sununu - at the news conference for the bill - said that even if the reforms result in less money for New Hampshire, he isn't afraid that will jeopardize his support from voters.
And as Senator lindsey graham from South Carolina piped in - what republicans are afraid of, is that if they don't clean up congress, they'll lose their majority.
