Members of the U.S. House of Representatives recently released their earmark requests for the fiscal year of 2011. From Virginia, these requests ranged from $654,505,395 by James Morgan, D-Alexandria, to $0 by each of the state's House Republicans who had announced in early March that their party would practice fiscal restraint and not seek any earmarks for one year. Tom Perriello, D-Charlottesville, submitted a list totaling to $42,265,477 for projects in his district. Perriello's main focus in this year's appropriations requests is to invest in workplace development and infrastructure to lay the foundation for future job growth in this area, Perriello's spokesperson Jessica Barba said to the Daily Progress.
The Office of Management and Budget defines an earmark as "funds provided by the Congress for projects, programs, or grants where the purported congressional direction ... circumvents otherwise applicable merit-based or competitive allocation processes." Essentially this is a funding technique used by legislators to bypass federal competition for grants to easily finance specific projects in the representatives' districts.
In years past, the University often has received the short end of the stick when receiving appropriations in comparison to its esteemed rival, Virginia Tech. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, in 2008, Virginia Tech received 16 separate earmark grants in comparison to the University's two. This fact may be at least partially explained by Virginia Tech's strong agricultural and engineering programs, as these fields tend to receive more in the way of federal subsidies than other disciplines.
Although asking for more money than any of Virginia's Republican congressmen, Perriello requested the least pork of any Virginia Democrat, seeking about 6 percent the amount of funding as Morgan - Virginia's highest roller. Perriello should be commended for his restraint. During times of economic hardship, when a number of obligations abroad and entitlement programs at home continue to exhaust the federal budget, fiscal austerity must become the modus operandi. Oftentimes earmarks serve the public interest, but usually there are more appropriate ways for Congress to divvy up funding so that the process is depoliticized as much as possible.
Of course, the University stands to benefit from elected officials delivering these earmarks. The $4 million allocated to the University's partnership with the Battelle Memorial Institute, if approved, would increase the institution's visibility in driving policy-oriented research. More important for a congressional earmark, the project has a clear nexus to the greater social good, helping to provide a means to analyze information related to biological warfare capabilities and threats against the United States.
Nevertheless, the University is ultimately better off when it receives less funding through earmarks and more through competitive grant processes. It exposes the institution to less public controversy and also leaves University officials less beholden to political interests. Such autonomy is paramount for an institution of higher learning.
It is not feasible nor desirable to remove partisanship entirely from the realm of higher education. But when the University's funding channels are far removed from fierce ideological confrontations about issues like pork-barrel spending, the institution is spared a much greater cost than just lost money. Even public colleges should be sheltered from the impulses of politics whenever possible.\nIn a quote popularly attributed to Otto von Bismarck, the European statesman says, "Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made." The same sentiments may apply to any kind of legislative pork.
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