I supported local projects in the $286 billion transportation bill, even though it was filled with pork (pork barrel projects),

[In] Both Parties Find Trough to Their Liking , ... Federal pork spending has exploded in recent years. The highway bill passed in July was bloated with 6,371 pork projects, or earmarks, inserted by members of Congress. Overall, the number of pork projects has increased ten-fold during the past decade. ...The pork explosion is a neon sign advertising the fiscal failure of today's congressional leadership.

This is the secretary of transportation bill, that's what this is.

We only have so much in transportation dollars. It is not driven by how much pork I can bring to my district — it just doesn't work that way on the county level.

We spent more than the president requested, and we were criticized for pork-barrel spending,

Let me make it clear: The Disbursement Allocation Program is not pork barrel. Of the DAP releases in 2011 and 2012, only nine percent was disbursed for projects suggested by legislators. The DAP is not theft. Theft is illegal.