Earmarks are plentiful in 2005 federal budget

Earmarks are plentiful in 2005 federal budget

Congressionally directed, performer-specific research and development spending—aka "earmarks"—topped $2 billion in FY 2005 appropriations bills, according to an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) analysis. Earmarks account for 1.6% of federally funded research and development.

The AAAS report finds the NIH, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security "remarkably earmark free," while in some budgets earmarks account for one of every five program dollars. The earmarks do not appear in agency budget requests but have to be accommodated. They are concentrated in four departments or agencies: Agriculture, $239 million; NASA, $217 million; Energy, $274 million; and Defense, $1.0 billion.

Department of Defense earmarks are up 25% from $825 million in FY 2004. Defense bears 85% of the earmark burden, a consequence of having half of all discretionary spending vested in the department. Growth for non-defense discretionary spending is near zero in FY 2005.
The total of $2.1 billion in earmarks overall is up 9% from FY 2004, which saw $1.9 billion in earmarked R&D. Fiscal constraints have forced down the amount of individual earmarks, but the total number continues to grow – a sign of "increasing constituent demand," according to AAAS.

In the Department of Health and Human Services, the Health Resources and Services Administration has $79 million in earmarked R&D, mostly for construction of laboratory facilities at hospitals and university medical schools, along with other renovation and construction projects, the AAAS analysis shows.

The Administration did not request funding for extramural construction in the budget for NIH's National Center for Research Resources, which has been a $120 million peer-reviewed program. Congress, however, provided $30 million to NCRR for that purpose, in contrast to the $79 million it distributed on its own through HRSA.

"Earmarks appear either in legislative language contained in appropriations bills, in which case they have the force of law, or appear in committee report language accompanying appropriations bills, in which case they are technically advisory," AAAS explains. "For all practical purposes, however, agencies usually follow the instructions from Congress contained in committee report language, including earmarks."

When Congress designates a specific performer for a particular R&D project, AAAS counts that as an earmark, as well as funds directed for a specific institution's investment in major capital equipment or construction funds for specific facilities.

The AAAS report is online at: www.aaas.org/spp/rd/earm05c.htm.