The Upside of Pork, Besides its Tasty Flavor, Part II

Besides it's tasty flavor? The upside of an appropriation (pork) exists almost entirely for its recipient and, if it is a good appropriation, the recipient's community. We've talked about how Congress funds federal agencies, now let's talk a little bit about how the appropriation process works.

If you need a refresher, visit Part I, we'll wait. Okay. All set?

Each Federal agency has funding programs. Some agencies have a lot, and some have just a few. The Department of Agriculture, for example, has 205 different funding programs, while the Department of the Treasury only has 6. Every fiscal year, Congress gives money to these funding programs. Here's one example:

The Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration has a pot of money that goes to support Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) all over the country. WIBs spend this money retraining folks whose jobs have moved overseas, or who are looking to make a job transition. You probably have a WIB in your area. Some of the funds for WIBs are discretionary, and come are competitive, meaning, some money is distributed by a formula (discretionary) and some money is distributed via an application and award process (competitive.) If you want the gory details, click here.

Among these hundreds, maybe thousands, of funding programs, there are a few accounts (really, there are only a few) where a Member can make an appropriation. What is an appropriation? An appropriation is where a Member of Congress funds an account but takes a little money off the top, directing it to a specific project, usually in their district. The Member of Congress or Senator tells the agency: You are getting $X million for this Urban Parks account. But I'm going to need you to spend $100,000 of that $X million building swing sets for the kids in my district.

Now, if you live in that district, you will be happy to see local kids playing on local swing sets. If you don't live in that district, you might be angry that the process of distributing funds wasn't more fair. However you feel about appropriations, I hope this blog helps you know more about how the process actually works. Questions? Comments? Thoughts? We'd love to hear from you!

artofpolitics at mac dot com