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Earmarks

Congressional members, led by appropriators and an army of staff, have already figured out a new way to keep their favors in the money, and it might as well be called 1-800-EARMARKS (which unfortunately is already taken). All across Washington, members are at this moment phoning budget officers at federal agencies--Interior, Defense, HUD, you name it--privately demanding that earmarks in previous legislation be fully renewed again this year. There might not be a single official earmark in the 2007 spending bill, but thousands are in the works all the same.

And getting far less scrutiny than before--if that's even possible. Under this new regime, members don't even have to go to the trouble of slipping an earmark into a committee report, where it might later (once the voting is over) come in for criticism.

"It's a Trough Life: The secret new way of earmarks," by Kimberley A. Strassell, The Wall Street Journal, February 9, 2007

We are offering a course about earmarks on February 23, 2007: Earmarks: Everything You Need to Know.

February 12, 2007 08:07 PM    Budget ~   Earmarks