Construction Reinvented.
Earmark Hide And Seek
New House rules require every member to post appropriation earmarks he or she has requested on the representative's website so the information is available to the public. A few Congressional leaders proudly display the link to these details in a prominent position on their home pages, but many Representatives have buried the earmark link two or three pages deep on their sites, and called them things like "other issues" or "local appropriations" to keep the word "earmark" out of the conversation altogether.
However, the earmark list is the best early warning about federally funded construction projects which will be released for bid in the near future in your locality. I recommend that you make the effort to carefully scrutinize the web pages of Congressmen in your locality, and once you locate the links, save them in your browser's "favorites" for future reference. Then you can easily scan the current listings from your area of the country or the localities where you do business whenever you need information about what will be coming out for bid in the next half year or so. This kind of advance planning will give you a competitive edge over the contracting businesses less diligent in seeking out advance notice of bidding opportunities before they come out in the Dodge Reports.
However, the earmark list is the best early warning about federally funded construction projects which will be released for bid in the near future in your locality. I recommend that you make the effort to carefully scrutinize the web pages of Congressmen in your locality, and once you locate the links, save them in your browser's "favorites" for future reference. Then you can easily scan the current listings from your area of the country or the localities where you do business whenever you need information about what will be coming out for bid in the next half year or so. This kind of advance planning will give you a competitive edge over the contracting businesses less diligent in seeking out advance notice of bidding opportunities before they come out in the Dodge Reports.
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Permalink Reply by Lumber Jack on -
I understand that people don't like earmarks because of their inherent opaque nature to the public. But in my mind the fact that important projects like bridges constructions/repairs have to be sneaked into some unrelated bill as earmarks else they won't get funded is a much bigger problem.
That said, however, I think the new earmark (or "local appropriation" called by any other name) publicity rules are great and it's a very nice idea to have yourself familiarized with earmarks in your locale for prospective business. I think the next logical step would be to be able to suggest earmarks to your Representative but this will most likely have to be worked out one individual basis. Wouldn't it be nice to have an earmark publicity rule that requires public feedback built into the system?
Peace! Jack.
Fix that house!
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