Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said the one large spending measure Congress passed yesterday included too much ``wasteful spending'' for lawmakers' pet projects.

``I am instructing Budget Director Jim Nussle to review options for dealing with wasteful spending in the omnibus bill,'' Bush said at a press conference in Washington.

Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington-based watchdog group, estimates Democrats provided $15.3 billion this year for pet projects, called earmarks. The organization also estimates that Democrats cut spending on such projects in the annual appropriations bills by 25 percent from 2006, when Republicans controlled Congress.

The Congress last night finished work on this year's budget, passing a $554 billion catch-all spending measure that funds most government agencies and provides $70 billion in unrestricted funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

``The omnibus bill was approved at the last minute, nearly three months after the end of the fiscal year,'' Bush said. ``When Congress wastes so much time and leaves its work to the final days before Christmas, it is not a responsible way to run this government.''

9,800 Earmarks

Bush said the budget bill contained funding for 9,800 earmarks.

``Together with the previously passed defense spending bill, that means Congress has approved about 11,900 earmarks this year,'' he said. Bush acknowledged that Democrats have reduced earmarks. ``But they have not made enough progress,'' he said.

Nussle said that while the number of earmarks has been reduced 12 percent, funding for them still totals about $10 billion dollars this year.

``These are items that really have crowded out a number of other priorities,'' Nussle said in an interview. He said he intends to find a way for Bush to ``hopefully eliminate some of these wasteful spending projects.''

Bush, at the press conference today, also noted other congressional accomplishments, including legislation that prevents a tax increase of about $2,000 for some 23 million U.S. households.

``Unfortunately, Congress passed this legislation after a lengthy delay,'' he said. ``The delay is going to add to the time it takes to process tens of billions of dollars in refunds,'' he said. ``We will work hard to minimize the impact of the congressional delay so that Americans can get their refund checks as soon as possible.''

He also said that Congress passed a ``good energy bill'' that will ``reduce our country's dependence on foreign oil by increasing the supply of alternative fuel sources and increasing fuel economy standards.''

Congress ended its legislative session for the year yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 20, 2007 17:31 EST