WASHINGTON – Despite mounting public debt, a costly war, and a spending freeze on many government programs, members of Congress have set aside more money this year for pet projects in their own districts than ever before, a new report shows.

New York State ranked only 43rd out of all states in its per-person share of the federal largesse for 2005, although one upstate Republican did draw heavy spending to his district thanks to a plum committee assignment. The state drew $393 million in earmarked funds, roughly equal to that of West Virginia, home to only 1.8 million people.

Across the nation, individual lawmakers managed to dedicate $300,000 for buses at Disneyland, $100,000 for the Tiger Woods Foundation, and $100,000 for a museum celebrating the weather-predicting powers of a groundhog, among other projects.

Senator McCain, a Republican of Arizona who attended a press conference to condemn the spending, said his “favorite” wasteful project was $100,000 for the Punxsutawney Weather Discover Center Museum in Pennsylvania, home to Punxsutawney Phil, a weather-forecasting rodent.

“We are now funding groundhogs,” Mr. McCain exclaimed.

Total earmarked spending for 2005 increased 19% over the previous year, to $27.3 billion, according to Citizens Against Government Waste, which released its annual “Oinker” awards for government waste yesterday.

“While the nation is at war and faces record deficits, you would think our members of Congress would restrain themselves,” said Thomas Schatz, president of the group, which has been tracking the spending for the past 15 years.

Rep. James Walsh, a Republican of Syracuse with a seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, brought a long list of projects to his district. They included $5 million to establish a Daniel Patrick Moynihan Global Affairs Institute at Syracuse University, $7 million for an environmental systems study center, $5 million for neighborhood programs in the city, and $200,000 for a zoo. The federal government will also pay $4 million for a new science center at St. Bonaventure University, Mr. Walsh’s alma mater.

In one appropriations bill alone, for Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, projects in Mr. Walsh’s district drew $40 million.

“That is incredible. It’s what a senator would get. He is an overachiever when it comes to pork,” the director of policy for the watchdog group, David Williams, said of Mr. Walsh. The congressman’s office did not reply to a request for comment yesterday.

The Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame is slated to receive $75,000 in federal funds.

Calling the project a “perfect example of pork,” Mr. Schatz asked, “Why should any Hall of Fame get government money? It should just charge a little bit more for admission.”

Of potentially greater concern to New Yorkers is the possibility that Congress may allow so-called “earmarks” in future Homeland Security spending bills. At present, the $32 billion annual security spending is divided up according to a formula and distributed by the department in the form of grants to state and local governments. Leaders of the Homeland Security committees in both the House and Senate are considering removing a two-year ban on earmarks, Congress Daily reported yesterday.

Mr. Schatz said the process would disadvantage high-threat areas such as New York City, since funds would be siphoned off to districts around the country.

A press conference to release an annual “Big Pig Book” of the worst offenders in Congress featured two Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs named Winnie and Dudley.

“The pigs salivating here are nothing compared to the salivating on Capitol Hill over the Homeland Security bill,” said Rep. Jeff Flake, a Republican of Arizona. “Believe me, if I want to get an earmark for my district, I can relate anything to homeland security. … If you allow earmarking, it will all be politics. It won’t be funding [based on] terrorist threat,” he said.

Mr. Flake yesterday wrote President Bush, asking him to veto any legislation that allowed individual congressmen to earmark security funds for projects in their districts.

“In Congress right now, we need some adult supervision,” said Mr. Flake, who said Republicans have become as guilty as Democrats once were of wasteful spending.

“This is a new phase in the Republican Party, and it’s not a pretty picture.”

He accused Republican leaders in Congress of bribing members to vote for legislation by offering them millions of dollars for projects in their districts.

“They call it greasing the skids or whatever. It’s just buying votes,” he said.

The state that drew the most earmarked government spending for the fourth consecutive year was Alaska, to which Senator Stevens, a Republican, the former chairman of the Appropriations Committee, helped steer $464 million, or nearly $1,000 a person. The funds paid for a vast variety of projects that included research into berries, seeds, ethnobotany, and Alaskan villages. New Yorkers by comparison received about $20 a person, and Texans only $2.90.

Pork barrel spending refers to projects set aside in spending bills by individual members of Congress. They exceed the president’s budget request or past funding, are not subject to congressional hearings, serve only a local interest, and do not pass through the regular competitive granting processes of government agencies.

Citizens Against Government Waste gave a “Halls of Shame Award” to the nearly $1.5 million spent nationwide for various “Halls of Fame,” including one in Wisconsin dedicated to the paper industry.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, the district of Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, a Republican, received an extra $450,000 for educational outreach and distance learning.

Although many of the projects may be worthy, they ought to be funded on a merit-based competitive grant system administered by specialized government departments, said Mr. Schatz.

New York State received funding for 617 projects in 2005, of which 140 received $100,000 or less. Many were youth programs, environmental cleanups, and transportation projects.

The largest grant in the state was $28 million for a Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester, according to the group’s report.

Other large projects include $3 million for the study of grape genetics in Geneva and $5 million for the Intrepid Sea-Air foundation.

In New York City, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, the Bronx Pregones Theatre, the Brooklyn Public Library, and the Jamaica Hospital were promised $121,000 each for renovations or land acquisition.

New York University was to receive $1.3 million to create the John Brademas Center for the Study of Congress.

Jazz education programs at Lincoln Center were allotted $400,000. The Metropolitan Museum of Art was promised $475,000 in economic development funds to restore its facade. And the New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority was earmarked $475,000 to build facilities.

The watchdog group was reluctant to finger any city lawmakers.

“For the most part, New York is not a problem,” said Mr. Williams. “They’re doing a great job.”