Released: February 03, 2006

‘Earmark’ - Money, Not Body Art

Source: By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, Washington Post

With the backing of President Bush, Congress is ready to rein in one of its fastest-growing and most controversial practices: earmarking.

An earmark is a narrowly focused appropriation. Once relatively rare and little discussed in public, these home-state projects - which range from highways to research grants - now are commonplace in Congress’s 13 annual appropriations bills that fund the federal government.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, the number of earmarks has grown from 4,155 valued at $29 billion in 1994 to 14,211 worth $53 billion a decade later.

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