The Impact of Changes to the Appropriations Process

As I mentioned in my last post, earmarks are going to get even more competitive as appropriation requests become more transparent and as the total funding available for earmarks is squeezed. For those of us (www.theartofpolitic.com) who only bring fully cooked, appropriate and worthy projects to appropriators, this is actually very good news. I think the change to the appropriation process will actually help high-quality requests move to the front of the line. I would be happy to have any of my clients' appropriation requests made public. Each request is well-matched to its funding source, and each request makes their community a better place to live, work or raise kids.

More information might benefit my clients in a second way. I look forward to increased transparency because in the current system, I have no way of knowing who else is applying for funding from a particular account. In a more transparent system, I might get to see my competition. This knowledge would help me advocate on my clients behalf.

No matter what you think about pork, I respect legislators who bring home the bacon, because as long as the current earmark system exists, legislators who don't fight for funding are guaranteeing that more of it will go to places like Washington state or West Virginia (I cannot BELIEVE how much pork Senators Murray and Byrd get. They are jaw dropping numbers.) The only way earmarking will stop is if it stops wholesale, and I cannot imagine a world where federal appropriators will not all die first before letting that happen.