Earmarks Defined
Wednesday evening, October 1st, the US Senate passed the revised bailout bill. The bill had many earmarks added to it. For those not familiar with the term earmarks-an earmark is a totally unrelated amendment added to a bill usually added surreptitiously. Despite opposition by the public, earmarks are a long standing tradition in the US House and Senate. An earmark enables a legislator to insert a piece of legislation that that could never stand scrutiny in a public debate.
Earmark Examples
The new bailout bill is 451 pages long and contains many earmarks ranging from the amusing to the utterly ridiculous. Here are some of the more egregious earmarks;
Film and Television Productions (Sec. 502)
Wooden Arrows designed for use by children (Sec. 503)
6 page package of earmarks for litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident, Alaska (Sec. 504)
Virgin Island and Puerto Rican Rum (Section 308)
American Samoa (Sec. 309)
Mine Rescue Teams (Sec. 310)
Domestic Production Activities in Puerto Rico (Sec. 312)
Indian Tribes (Sec. 314, 315)
Auto Racing Tracks (317)
Wool Research (Sec. 325)
