PLEASE NOTE: EarmarkWatch is an experimental distributed research project that contains data for Fiscal Year 2008 earmarks from the House and Senate Labor-HHS-Education bills and the 2008 House Defense Bill.
It does not contain 2009 earmarks. Congress released earmark disclosures for an omnibus bill that included three of the twelve regular appropriations bills—Defense, Homeland Security, and Military Construction/Veterans Affairs—for fiscal year 2009.
A downloadable spreadsheet listing those earmarks is available from Taxpayers for Common Sense (xls).
Here's your chance to investigate earmarks–those spending measures inserted by members of Congress into bills that direct
taxpayer dollars to their pet projects. Are members using earmarks to meet pressing needs? Reward political supporters?
Are they good public policy, or vehicles for pure pork? Every earmark is different, and we currently have over 3,000 of them
online, ready and waiting for you to dig into.
The research framework we're providing asks you specific questions about the recipient of the earmark and the member who sponsored it, and provides links to the sources of information you can search for answers.
You will also have an opportunity to provide additional information from your own research. We offer some suggestions and ideas for additional information you can find, but feel free to follow your own instincts.
* "The Brains," Harper's Weekly p.992 October 12, 1871.