Coalition Tracks Pet Projects of Lawmakers

Cox Washington / Atlanta Journal - Constitution ^ | September 9, 2006 | Rebecca Carr

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An explosion in the use of earmarks, Congress members' way of funding pet projects without public scrutiny, is fueling new efforts to track the practice amid fears of rising corruption.

The number of earmarks surged nearly fourfold over the past decade to 15,877 last year, according to the Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan research arm of Congress.

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"A lot of these earmarks are bought and sold like bales of cotton," said Ron Utt, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation

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The increase in earmarks is connected to an increase in the number of lobbyists offering to obtain them for a fee, Utt said. In 2000, there were 1,865 lobbyists registered to pursue appropriation issues. Within four years the number had nearly doubled.

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There are nearly $500 million in earmarks in the Labor-HHS appropriation bill, the largest nonmilitary annual spending measure, and that figure is expected to increase when a House-Senate conference committee takes it up to resolve differences in the two versions.

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To read it all, you must register with the AJC and search, or wait until Cox Washington gets it up on its web site Monday.

Evidently, the web lackeys get the weekend off over there.

[upchuck]

Hmmm... I clicked the ajc link and went right to it. And, AFAIK, I've never registered with the ajc.

If anybody is having trouble, try this.

[308MBR]

Thanks for the help. It seems if it's a conservative topic, we tend to have trouble linking. Maybe the socialists are out for the weekend up there? LOL