Soooooooeeeeey

Throw some slop in the trough and just watch all the hogs come a runnin'.....

Despite pledges by congressional leaders to keep special projects out of the legislation, groups ranging from a home builders' coalition to an Indian tribe in Oklahoma have hired lobbyists recently to help them secure a piece of the $900 billion economic stimulus package moving through Congress.

More than two dozen organizations have filed lobbying registration forms since Election Day that list the stimulus package — known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — as a focus of their lobbying efforts, according to a USA TODAY review of records compiled by the non-partisan CQ MoneyLine.

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"It's a lobbyist full-employment act," Steve Ellis, vice president of the budget watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, said of the package. "This is a big train, and everything is hopping on board."

Officials in Forsyth County, N.C., for instance, recently signed a $60,000 lobbying contract with the Ferguson Group as they seek $20 million in federal money for highway improvements, $1 million for a gun range and $3 million for airport taxiway extension, said County Manager Dudley Watts. The county is looking for opportunities in the stimulus package and other spending bills Congress will consider later in the year, he said.

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