A new report out Wednesday aimed at Texas lawmakers for taking home more than $550 million in questionable pet projects.

Every year, the congressional pig book lists the pork barrel spending projects that don't go through the normal budget process. According to the watchdog group that put out the book, this year, Congress generated the second highest number of earmarks totaling more than $17 billion.

In El Paso, some of the money is going to purchase lab equipment at Thomason General Hospital. Texas Tech's health science center also gets funding for lab equipment. The group said the projects may be good, but the earmarks process is shady.

"The local folks may think it's great... My local senator my local member of Congress got this project. It's essentially means they cheated. They jumped ahead of all the other projects that are being considered by agencies based on the competitive grant process that Congress told them to use,” said Tom Schatz from Citizens Against Government Waste.

The watchdog group calculates that New Mexico received more than $200 million in pork projects.

To take a look at a detailed list of all area earmarks and the lawmakers who put in for them, click here.