Sabbatical Report, Fall 2010. Earmarks: Who Gets What, How, and Why

Abstract

I used the time provided by the sabbatical leave to work on the book Earmarks: Who Gets What, How and Why (to be co-authored with Sean Q Kelly). The book is under contract with the University of Michigan Press with a completed manuscript due to the publisher in late fall 2011. This book will represent the culmination of a data collection and analysis effort that has already lasted more than seven years and will undoubtedly be the most important scholarly contribution of my career. Without the time afforded to me by the sabbatical, completion of this book would have been impossible. More specifically, the semester was devoted to data collection, entry and analysis and writing preliminary drafts of chapters for the book, as well as extensive reading and assessment of the literature on congressional distributive spending and the evolution of the federal government budget process.