Distributive Politics in Developing Countries by Baskin Mark; Mezey Michael L.; Barkan Joel D

Author:Baskin, Mark; Mezey, Michael L.; Barkan, Joel D.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books

Table 5.6 Cost Ranked by State FY 2010

States ranked by the mean value of earmarks per congressional district

Operations

Earmarks are normally initiated by organizations within members’ constituencies. The requests come from a wide variety of sources: local governments, universities, nonprofit social service organizations such as hospitals or battered women’s shelters, and businesses, especially defense contractors (or businesses that would like to attain that status). The request may come from the organization itself or, if it has the resources, from a lobbying firm acting as a go-between. Indeed, lobbying for earmarks has undergone an explosion in the past decade or so. The number of firms that reported lobbying Congress on budget and appropriations issues grew from 1,447 in 1998 to 4,013 in 2005. “Even that number is incomplete because lobbyists are exempt from filing disclosure forms for work done on behalf of state and local governments.”30 Many such lobbyists are former members of Congress or former key staffers, especially former staff members of the appropriations committees. Public Citizen reported that between 1998 and 2005, 43% of MCs who left Congress and were eligible to become lobbyists had done so.31

The initial steps in obtaining an earmark are best described by Scott Frisch and Sean Kelly, who interviewed a number of staffers responsible for processing earmark requests in the offices of House members and senators. Upon receiving a request, staff members apply an initial “smell test” to determine whether the earmark is something that the MC can defend if it is discovered by the news media or a watchdog group; if not, it may cause political problems for the MC and thus may be refused by the staff member in charge of vetting the requests. Frisch and Kelly quote one senior staff member as follows: “At the end of the day my boss is going to make a decision based on my recommendation, and it is my job on the line, and hers too. We have a rule of thumb and that is ‘don’t take actions that are going to land you on the front page of the Washington Post in a negative way.’”32

A project that passes the initial smell test then is evaluated by other criteria, such as whether it is likely to create jobs in the district, whether the MC supports the group and its cause, and whether the earmark fits the needs of the executive branch agency that will have to administer it.33 That said, Frisch and Kelly note that many offices are reluctant to refuse any earmark request and simply forward them all to the Appropriations Committee.34

MCs submit the earmark requests to the appropriations subcommittee in their respective house of Congress with jurisdiction over the funding of the agency that would administer the earmark. In the House, MCs’ offices submit those requests to an electronic database. The requests are first evaluated by subcommittee staff, mainly the subcommittee clerk (the traditional term for the staff director). There is no standardized procedure by which requests are handled here, but the major winnowing must necessarily come at this level.

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