A "pork-barrel" project, also known as an ???earmark,??? is a publically funded project promoted by a legislator to bring money and jobs to his or her own district. The "pork" is allocated not on the basis of need, merit or entitlement; it is solely the result of political patronage, the desire of legislators to promote the interests of their own district, and thereby build up their local support. In 1998, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) claimed that $10 billion in pork barrel projects was being allocated in that year's appropriations bills. Many of the projects McCain declared to have no valid national purpose were in the home states of senators who happened to sit on the Appropriations Committee.