Group Offers Ways to Trim ‘Pork’ From Budget : Politics: Rep. Ed Royce joins lobbying organization in detailing 50 proposals to cut federal spending.

Noting the frustration Americans feel this time of the year when they pay their taxes, Orange County Rep. Ed Royce joined a lobbying group Monday to unveil 50 ways to trim the federal budget and save $1.5 trillion over five years.

Royce (R-Fullerton) said he does not support all 50 of the proposals but would make sure Congress takes a serious look at each of them. The congressman is chairman of the Porkbusters Coalition, a group dedicated to ridding the budget of unnecessary spending.

“Taxpayers have really caught ‘porkbuster’ fever with a vengeance,” Royce said. “They are demanding we begin to eliminate pork spending in Washington.”

Royce joined Citizens Against Government Waste, a 600,000-member group devoted to reducing federal spending, who used Monday’s tax filing deadline to highlight taxpayers’ anguish over feeling their money is being wasted.

While that feeling has lingered for years, what’s new is a Republican-controlled Congress anxious to downsize the federal budget, said Tom Schatz, president of the group.

“There’s never been a deficit of ideas on how to balance the budget,” Schatz said. “There’s only been a deficit of political will to implement them.”

The group, with suggestions from Royce, put together 50 “Prime Cuts” aimed at reducing the fat in the $1.4-trillion federal budget. The list is intended to guide members of Congress when they begin to scrutinize federal spending next month.

The recommendations vary from eliminating some initiatives to privatizing government services and making other programs run more efficiently.

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Many of the ideas have been targeted for years as examples of unwise spending, such as a scientifically questionable helium reactor that costs $12 million a year and a $6-million initiative to provide electricity and phone service to rural areas.

The group also called for contracting with private companies to operate military commissaries; killing “corporate welfare” initiatives that help companies promote their products overseas, and banning construction of new courthouses and other buildings.

A main goal for Royce is stopping the practice of earmarking money for congressional districts, which makes up what taxpayers commonly think of as “pork.”

Other programs on the hit list will be contentious, including elimination of the $2.1-billion space station, the orbiting lab project that has survived several near-death experiences. The project supports more than 1,000 jobs in Orange County at McDonnell Douglas and smaller companies.

Royce voted for continued funding of the space station last year, but he said Congress is exploring ways to involve private companies in its funding.

The congressman also has not taken a position on replacing the dollar bill with a coin, a plan that supporters say would save $100 million over five years.

Royce predicted that the GOP-led Congress would embrace many of the cuts proposed Monday.

“We have seen more headway made in this Congress in terms of forcing the government to live within its means than we’ve seen in 40 years,” he said.