State Rep. John Yates is not a fan of pork-barrel spending and he has found a new target to criticize — Georgia’ delegation to the U.S. Congress.

Yates said he learned about this spending from an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution that listed the earmarks requested by Georgia’s representatives in the U.S. House. He said that Georgia representatives have brought home $208 million in federal money and that if thirteen representatives from Georgia mean $208 million in spending, 535 total congressmen and senators would mean a figure many times that.

“These are the things that make it impossible to balance the budget,” Yates said, estimating that earmarks might run as high as $20 billion.

He said that many of these projects exist not because they’re needed but because politicians want to buy support from the voters.

Yates went on to praise U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland for his comparative restraint — he only requested four earmarks.

According to a 2006 press release from Westmoreland’s office, Westmoreland has opposed pork-barrel spending. In Sept. 2006, he voted for a measure that would list all earmarks and the names of the members requesting the earmarks be included in the spending bills.

“This is a modest but symbolic victory for spending restraint,” Westmoreland said in the release. “I’m not convinced that this is going to save a lot of money but it brings transparency and accountability to the process.”

He said that if members of Congress are willing to try to get federal money sent to their districts, they should have the courage to make their efforts public and that shame would help keep spending in line.

It’s not just the House delegation that brings home the bacon — both Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Sen. Johnny Isakson have brought federal monies to Georgia.

An appropriations disclosure from Sen. Chambliss’s web-site ran 28 pages and listed dozens of grants of federal funds, ranging from a $100,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant for peanut production in Dawson, $2.7 million for building a trail along an old rail line in Statesboro, $300,000 for improving traffic flow in Roswell, several grants totalling nearly $3.5 million for University of Georgia agricultural research in Tifton and $250,000 for building a “Wall of Honor” for veterans in Henry County.

Although Sen. Johnny Isakson received a “Taxpayer Hero” award from the Citizens Against Government Waste watchdog group, he too brought home federal bacon for the state.

His disclosure report includes $250,889 for research into dealing with parasitic nematodes that harm cotton plants, $1,000,000 for an animal hospital at Zoo Atlanta, $500,000 for wireless technology in rural areas, $250,000 for truancy-prevention programs in Fulton County, $2,600,000 for Spelman College for Women and $319,061 for repairs to the historic Old Fort Jackson in Savannah.

Sen. Chambliss’s office could not be reached for comment but Sen. Isakson’s office responded.

“One of the problems we have in Congress with deficit spending is spending money on projects that by anybody’s definition are projects that shouldn’t be funded with tax dollars,” Isakson said in the release. “We must take large and immediate steps to end the reckless spending that is threatening the future of our nation. Congress must become better stewards of the taxpayers’ money.”

He said that his belief in transparency and disclosure led him to vote to strength earmark reform by supporting earmark reform alongside Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who introduced an amendment requiring disclosure of earmarks 48 hours before Congress votes on the bill.

He then said that he co-sponsored Senate Bill 15, which would create a line-item veto for the president to use against wasteful spending, require Congressional affirmation of presidential excision of items from bills and automatically slow the rate of growth of mandatory programs and institute caps on discretionary spending if Congress does not meet spending targets.

Yates is less familiar with the U.S. Senate delegation, since they were not in the article he read.

However, he took Sen. Saxby Chambliss to task for his support of agricultural subsidies.

Yates said that although he has “a soft spot for dirt-poor farmers,” he said that the bill favors large agricultural producers who do not need help, particularly in a time of agricultural surpluses. He also said that these subsidies violate treaties with foreign nations and hurt poor farmers elsewhere, particularly in Africa.