Earmark or pork amendments were banned as the 110th Congress passed its Continuing Resolution (H.J.Res.20) to fund the nine 2007 appropriations bills that the 109th Congress neglected to complete last year. However, the funding for the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security did not escape earmarking. For example, the Defense budget includes $5.5 million for the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center, $4 million for the Northern Line Extension, a railway to connect the village of North Pole (population 1,778) to the village of Delta Junction (population 840) and $1.65 million to improve the shelf life of vegetables.
Washington legislative watchdogs noted that several unidentified lawmakers privately called federal agencies asking for their requests for pet projects as a means of circumventing the prohibition of earmarks. In response, the White House Office of Management and Budget issued a directive that instructed agencies “not to obligate funds on the basis of earmarks contained in Congressional reports or documents or documents or other written or oral communications regarding earmarks.”
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