Follow the ca$h.

• Author: Rooney, Kathleen
• Position: Political Landscape

"If brought back and pursued with transparency and honesty, earmarks stand to alleviate--through small outlays of cash--a great deal of economic uncertainty, not just for the wealthy and empowered few, but for us all."

IF YOU FEEL moved by a desire to alleviate human suffering and to help make local government better able to meet its constituents' needs, then being a U.S. Senate aide can be a real heartbreaking pursuit. One thing that used to mitigate that heartbreak, though, was the existence of earmarks: legislative provisions that directed approved funds to be spent on specific projects. I know, because from 2007-10, I worked as an aide in the Chicago office of Sen. Dick Durbin (D.-Ill.).

One of my many responsibilities was to conduct what is known as "outreach"--to drive out to the collar counties surrounding Chicago and meet with local elected officials, administrators of municipal governments, and employees of community agencies and organizations. In doing so, we aides acted as the senator's eyes and ears: we looked at what these individuals and institutions were doing, and we listened to what they said they wanted from the Federal government to help them better fulfill the needs of the people they sought to serve.

On my countless trips to DuPage and Kane counties, the areas I covered, I met with many wonderful people, from mayors and village managers (dedicated civil servants acting to keep their towns safe and livable) to directors of nonprofit food pantries and homeless shelters (committed advocates who believed that no one in need should be left out in the cold).

I would sit across the table from them and explain that Sen. Durbin cared about their struggles. Then they typically would say that their greatest need was money. Often, this type of request would feel tinged with futility, because there was no money for them to be asking for directly--but back in the days when the earmark system was not the taboo it since has become, it was possible to assuage the sense that the outreach visit had been pointless and depressing by telling them to put together a proposal for an earmark.

We aides would have to manage their expectations, of course, and make it clear that there were very few resources to go around. Yet, we nevertheless could give them a sense of hope that some project of theirs--new streetlights, a substance-abuse treatment initiative, a program to offer education and job training to battered women, or what have you--might...