In our blog post today, we asked people to match earmarks with Members of Congress. If you want to do more, this set of questions should help you through deeper research. Any answers you get, post on our blog.

1) Who secured the earmark?
a. What district is it in? Call the office of the congressperson you think might have secured the earmark and ask them if they are indeed responsible for it. Record whatever answer they give.
b. Review press releases of Members of Congress to see if the earmark is mentioned (this is difficult because the bill has yet to be passed).
c. If you have direct access to the Congressperson through public events, ask the Congressperson at those public events, and record the answer.

2) Are there any direct financial connections between the institution getting earmarks and the campaigns of the person who likely secured the earmark?
a. Is the President of the institution a campaign donor?
b. Are any members of the Board of directors campaign donors?
c. Is the organization itself a campaign donor?

3) Is there an indirect political connection between the recipient of the earmark and the congressmember who likely secured it?
a. Do any local politicians with ties to the Congressmember gain from the earmark? Often the support of mayors and state-level leaders is important for a Congress-members career – are their any indications that this earmark might be intended to secure the favor of the local politician?

4) Why was this organization chosen?
a. If you have identified the Congressmember responsible for the earmark, what is their stated reason for asking for the earmark? (Whenever possible, get reasons in writing, signed by a staffer. A phone call followed up by an email may work for this purpose. If phone calls are not returned or emails are not returned, make a record of that as well).
b. If the given reason is economic growth in their home state, what reason does the Congressmember give for that same economic growth not being due to other states?
c. If this is for a job training program, what is unique about this job training program that suggests it should be favored instead of providing an across-the-board support for job training?

5) Are there indirect financial connections between the earmark and campaign contributors?
a. Does the earmark specify equipment to be used that comes from a particular company that has donated to members of congress?
b. Does the earmark provide services that companies typically provide. For example, if the earmark is for job training for mechanics, is there a local company with heavy campaign contributors that will directly benefit from the training of local mechanics?

6) Does the recipient of the earmark plan to name the receiving program after the Congressmember?

To make the information easily searchable, put all information you find in this blog post (link), list the recipient, amount, and state of the earmark, and then use the outline numbers listed above. Use weblinks whenever possible to source information. Always note when you find nothing, as well when you find something. E.g.:

Earmark name: Allegheny Tonsil treatment Center, $150,000, PA

Notes: Wonder if the tonsil treatment center uses TEENY TONSILS equipment. TEENY TONSILS gave $50,000 to congressmembers last year.