Abstract
This article documents Congressional transportation earmarking practice in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, analyzing how Congress earmarks funds for projects and how earmark features determine beneficiaries. First, it illuminates the Congressional process for earmarking in a bill: Committees solicit requests, leadership structures the terms for earmarking, and members identify final priorities. Second, it distinguishes between authorization and appropriation earmarks, and among demonstration, discretionary, and stand-alone earmarks. Finally, it shows how statutory, nonstatutory, and hybrid earmarks vary in legal significance, with implications for federal, state, and other agencies’ ability to change or challenge a congressionally directed project. Major themes emerge. Increases in earmarking, technological advances, and earmarking reforms have made some stages of the process more formal and visible, although key stages remain opaque. In addition, Congressional earmarking is dynamic, evolving in response to situational opportunities and challenges. Concluding observations discuss how future earmarking could be made more transparent and effective.
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