Chronicle Releases Report on Earmarks for University Research: Earmarks Increase by 49% in FY97

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently released its annual report on funding for university projects that Congress specifically directed federal agencies to support. The Chronicle reported that Congress earmarked at least $440 million for projects involving specific universities for FY1997. That is a 49 percent increase from FY1996 total of $296 million.

The report tallies items for which federal agencies did not request funding or sponsor merit-based competitions (although there were a few projects for which funding was added to projects that had previously been competitively awarded). The projects included were named either in appropriations bills or the legislative reports that accompany them.

Projects range from $32,000 to be allocated by the Agriculture Department to the University of Vermont for maple research to $45 million to be allocated by the Navy to University of Hawaii for a new oceanographic research ship.

Listed below is a state-by-state summary of funding (in thousands of dollars) for earmarked projects. Funding is attributed to the lead university in those instances where funding is to be shared with other institutions.

State

Amount

Rank Hawaii 211,741,500

1

California 75,559,000 2 Oregon 47,047,000 3 Pennsylvania 43,985,000 4 Louisiana 36,614,000 5 Florida 32,619,000 6 North Carolina 25,301,000 7 Alaska 25,037,000 8 Indiana 23,332,000 9 Texas 21,653,000 10 New York 21,646,000 11 New Mexico 20,668,000 12 Minnesota 19,705,000 13 Alabama 19,500,000 14 Tennessee 19,500,000 15 Arizona 18,913,000 16 Maryland 16,584,000 17 Michigan 14,715,000 18 New 14,700,000 19 New Jersey 12,620,000 20 Connecticut 12,504,900 21 Iowa 12,291,000 22 Georgia 12,010,000 23 Washington 10,447,000 24 Mississippi 10,198,000 25

State

Amount

Rank

Missouri 8,400,000 26 Illinois 7,872,900 27 Nebraska 7,780,000 28 South Carolina 7,368,000 29 West Virginia 7,350,000 30 Arkansas 5,892,000 31 Massachusetts 5,832,000 32 North Dakota 5,560,000 33 Wisconsin 5,196,000 34 Maine 4,970,000 35 Montana 4,760,000 36 Ohio 3,627,000 37 Utah 3,600,000 38 Kansas 2,848,000 39 Idaho 2,442,900 40 Kentucky 1,000,000 41 Oklahoma 998,000 42 Colorado 348,000 43 Virginia 348,000 44 South Dakota 329,000 45 Vermont 216,100 46 Wyoming 212,000 47 Nevada N/A 48 Delaware N/A 48 Rhode Island N/A 48