December 23, 2006

Academic Pork Won't Vanish in 2007, Says Report on Democratic Plan

The announcement last week that Congress’s new Democratic majority would eliminate most academic earmarks raised concerns about lost funds among recipients of the Congressionally directed grants, but now it appears that some of the worries were premature.

The Democrats’ plan was part of efforts by the incoming chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to deal with budget bills left unfinished by the departing Republican Congress. The chairmen said they would seek to freeze spending at 2006 levels for the current 2007 fiscal year for all agencies but the Defense and Homeland Security Departments, whose spending bills were enacted into law.

But as The New York Times reported today, the moratorium on earmarks is likely to affect only efforts to land new pieces of pork. Many earmarks are for projects that go on for years, so their 2006 appropriations are likely to continue as well. And even if Congress does drop the specific language ordering federal agencies to dole out money to favored recipients, the agencies are likely to intuit the wishes of their Congressional overseers and allocate the funds as intended.

Moreover, since a large proportion of academic earmarks are financed through the Pentagon — as much as one-third of the total — those pork-barrel projects will not be affected by the earmark moratorium at all.

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