Useful Stats: Academic Pork 1990-2002

The use of Congressional earmarks on federal agency budgets to support projects and programs in academic institutions has exploded since 1996, according to statistics compiled by and reported in the September 27, 2002 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Whether measured by the number of institutions involved (up 27 percent over 2001), the number of individual earmarks (up 35 percent), or the total dollar value involved (up 10 percent), the 2002 federal budget saw a record use or abuse of the technique to circumvent competitive review of proposals. The Chronicle reports there were 1,645 individual earmarks garnering 668 institutions a total of $1.84 billion in 2002.

For comparison, 128 schools received a total of $300 million through 215 separate earmarks in fiscal year 1996.

Arguably bad public policy smacking of backroom cronyism, earmarks nevertheless have become an integral component of many state and local efforts to develop technology-based economies over the past six years.

For states with members of Congress in senior leadership positions, earmarks can be a more expeditious method of obtaining funds for research and technology-based economic development programs than the traditional competitive or peer-reviewed routes.

Academic institutions in West Virginia, for example, received $69.8 million in non-shared earmarks in 2002 and a total of $220.3 million during 1998-2002. Of West Virginia's 2002 earmarks: $11 million supported biotech research, $6.9 million went toward distance learning and telemedicine projects, $5 million supported technology transfer, $24 million was for other research projects, and an additional $6 million was spread across several other initiatives supporting tech-based economic development goals. The remaining one-quarter went toward covering the state's share of match for some federal programs and on a variety of other projects.

In contrast to West Virgina's earmarks being spread over several areas and programs, the Chronicle analysis finds 87 percent of all earmarks for fiscal year 2002 involved specific research projects and financing of research-related construction, facilities and equipment.

As more areas become aware of the pervasiveness and "creative" uses of earmarks — and as programs search for alternative sources of financing given state fiscal conditions — the role of pork in tech-based economic development policy may only increase.

The Chronicle's complete list of academic earmarks for all states during the 1990-2002 timespan is available at: http://chronicle.com/stats/pork