FY10 Appropriations Requests
I am a new member of the House Appropriations Committee, which provides funding for all federal spending programs with the exception of mandatory spending like Medicare and Social Security. In the past, member-directed funding requests – often known as earmarks – were sometimes done in secret and were often airdropped into bills at the last minute by members with substantial clout.
Fortunately, there is far more transparency and accountability now and the public can gauge whether funding requests made by their local officials and leaders, and submitted by their Representatives or Senators, have merit.
There have been many reforms instituted in the process, including increased Executive Branch Review to ensure that any submitted request is actually eligible for funding, and a new rule that requires the Executive Branch to ensure that any funding awarded to a non-profit is awarded through a competitive bidding process. Part of the rationale for the second provision is to tamp down on multi-billion projects forced on the Department of Defense by members who insert provisions into spending bills. You can read more about new reforms here and here.
Also, another new provision meant to safeguard public dollars involves the use of rescissions, a tool that allows funds to be cut or rescinded from a measure already signed into law. The Appropriations Committee has vowed that if any “clunkers” are discovered after enactment of a spending bill, Congress can consider proposals by the President to rescind funding. So, if there is another infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” that becomes law, the President can ask that Congress remove the funding. Ironically, this one project that has become the “poster child” of abusive earmarks was not included in one of the annual spending bills considered by the appropriations panel, but instead was slipped into another bill in the dark of night.
Finally, congressional rules now require all members to post their funding requests online on their websites, which ensures transparency.
Below you will find a list of funding requests I have submitted this year on behalf of local officials and entities. Please note that submitting a funding request does not necessarily mean a project will be funded, or at the submitted amount, and each submission will depend on how the Fiscal Year 2010 budget process plays out.
| Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA, and Related Agencies
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| Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
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| Defense
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| Energy and Water Development
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| Financial Services and General Government
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| Homeland Security
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| Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
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| Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
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| Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
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