Idiom idiom
pork up
Meaning
To add spending, especially targeted spending, to legislation in order to get votes for it (see pork-barrel).
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The politicians pork up the bill to win more votes.”
“The senator decided to pork up the infrastructure bill with local projects to ensure his colleagues would support it.”
“By choosing to pork up the legislation with numerous small grants for his home district, the representative successfully secured the necessary support to pass the controversial budget.”
Anchors to
Last updated August 10, 2026