Earmarked Research By Any Other Name

Walter Pincus of The Washington Post illustrates today how members of the House of Representatives have proposed "programmatic requests" to sidestep the ban on earmarks in the 2012 military appropriations bill, now pending before the full House after the spending panel approved it last week. Many of them involve medical research, a popular topic for earmarkers in past Department of Defense spending bills.

But with the word now out of favor, lawmakers insist their latest bunch of targeted spending requests are not earmarks but rather simply guidance for Pentagon officials in making competitive grants in particular subject areas. From the Post story:

One of those added programs was $3.2 million for Bone Marrow Failure Disease research. Last month, Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) sent a letter to colleagues seeking support for the program that had first been earmarked in 2008. In boldface type it said: "The Bone Marrow Failure Disease Program is not an earmark. This request will be considered programmatic."