Religious Groups Increasingly Seek Earmarks

Religious nonprofit groups increasingly use lobbyists to seek Congressional earmarks that bypass the normal competitive-grants process in Washington, reports The New York Times.

Earmarks are spending measures that are placed in big pieces of legislation and often escape public scrutiny.

The earmarks won by religious groups — totaling $318-million from 1989 to 2007 — were much smaller than the total amount of earmarks in that period.

However, most of that money came in just the past few years, signaling an increase in activity among such groups. In addition, the number of religious groups that employ lobbyists tripled from 1998 to 2005, the newspaper reports.

The types of earmarks fall into two groups. Some earmarks, like those given to World Vision and Fuller Theological Seminary, are clearly for charitable purposes, and often help out the poor. Others finance the type of projects that have given earmarks a bad name in Washington: millions of dollars for private roads and new buildings.

The article also contains a link to a database of more than 900 religious earmarks.

Read The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s special report on earmarks for charities.

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