Delving into OMB's Earmark Data
By Bill Allison Apr 05 2007 6:28 p.m. 1 commentAfter fooling around with it for the last half-day or so, I feel confident I can pronounce the new OMB earmark database a great tool and a success for OMB, and I can't wait for the updates going forward.
One thing I wanted to try was to see if one can match companies that get earmarks with members of Congress through campaign contributions. For example, DSD Laboratories got a few 2005 earmarks (see here and here and here and here ). A check of the Senate Office of Public Records site shows that the firm hasn't reported or hired anyone who's reported any lobbying expenditures. However, I ran the name of the company's chairman and founder, Bart Guerreri, through OpenSecrets, and came up with $68,200 in contributions since 1993 to a handful of members--including some who sit on the House Appropriations Committee. Running just "DSD Lab" in the occupation field turns up $110,000 to pretty much the same handful of lawmakers going back to 1993. It appears that Rep. John Murtha ($22,000) and Rep. Alan Mollohan ($16,150)have gotten the bulk of the contributions, with Rep. Marty Meehan ($14,000) coming in third. If I were curious about who inserted each earmark for DSD Laboratories, I might begin by asking those three members.
It also occurs to me that maybe the Earmark Database could provide fodder for a good distributed research project--how many earmark beneficiaries either hired lobbyists or had employees who made contributions to members of Congress. I don't know whether waiting for 2008 data makes more sense than starting with the 2005 numbers.
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[...] Real Time Investigations shows how to piece together information from the newly launched Office of Management and Budget Congressional Earmarks database with other public records expenditure sources to match politicians with the lobbyists and the companies that benefit. Pass it on: This entry is filed under Public Records, Pennsylvania, Databases, Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Leave a Reply [...]