LegiStorm Part 7 | Understanding Earmarks

How special projects get funding

Earmark spending is often called pork-barrel spending.

You can tell a lot about lawmakers’ personal interests by checking out the earmarks they sponsor. Earmarks are well-documented and categorized at LegiStorm.

You can view earmarks by sponsor’s name, state, organization or which bill they were attached to. There is even a separate category for presidential earmarks.

Earmarks 101

Earmarks are usually federal expenditures geared toward special projects that are tacked on to larger bills. Earmarks have gotten a lot of attention in the media lately as they have grown bigger and more expensive. Funding for earmarks in fiscal 2008 was $18.3 billion.

Earmarks are controversial because of their increasing expense and because people argue that they don’t have to go through the same rigorous scrutiny other legislation is subject to.

Earmarks in the presidential campaign

Earmarks were hotly debated in the presidential contest between Barack Obama and John McCain. McCain touted his record of never supporting earmarks to get his state cash advances. State legislators who are in favor of earmarks argue that they are often the fastest way to get their states what they need.

McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin got into some hot water after she claimed to have refused earmark funding when she had initially accepted it. Obama was criticized for allowing many earmarks in the massive economic stimulus package after he had promised to decrease earmarks during his campaign.

Earmarks on LegiStorm

The eight most expensive earmarks in fiscal year 2008 were for defense spending. The top three earmarks, in order of highest expense, were for submarine procurement and two military construction projects. They were all sponsored by the president, George W. Bush at the time. The site doesn’t yet have this  year’s earmarks posted.

Big ticket items

The single organization that received the most earmark funding in fiscal 2008 was the National Drug Intelligence Center. Coming in second was military contractor Northrup Grumman. Another big-time receiver was University of Southern Alabama, which got $30 million for its Engineering and Science Center.