About the database

This database shows who received earmarks and who gave them in the 2007 defense bill.

It also shows how much companies and their employees gave to lobbyists and lawmakers who helped deliver the earmarks.

You can search by lawmaker name or by the name of a company or nonprofit that got an earmark in the 2007 defense bill. You can also browse lawmakers or earmark recipients by state.

Lawmaker search

A lawmaker search shows every earmark that a member of Congress claims credit for in a news release, including the dollar amount, all the recipients we were able to identify and the description of the earmark that appears in the bill.

More information on that earmark is available if you click on the "Earmark" column, including a longer description from a congressional news release.

You'll also see a list of 2007 earmark recipients whose employees or political action committees gave campaign contributions to a lawmaker since the start of 2001. The lawmaker did not necessarily help all those who contributed.

Recipient search

A search of recipients shows the name of a company, nonprofit or other entity that was given an earmark. It shows the amount of all earmarks to that entity, how much was spent on lobbying last year and how much those affiliated with the recipient gave to the campaigns of sitting members of Congress since 2001.

The information is not complete because fewer than half of Congress members issued news releases on earmarks. Also, The Times collected contribution and lobbying data only for companies and select nonprofits. Lobbying and contribution data for most colleges, hospitals, business consortiums and military units were not compiled.

Whenever possible, businesses receiving earmarks are listed by the unit getting the contract. Lawmakers generally give earmarks to businesses in their home state, even though the company's headquarters might be located elsewhere. When this happens, a link is provided to the parent company near the top of the results page with the symbol "(HQ)."

Contributions

All contributions are listed under the name of the recipient or its parent company. If you don't see a list of contributions, click on the link next to "Parent" near the top of the page.

To get back to the previous page, simply click the Back button on your browser.

Lobbying

All lobbying data is listed under the name of the recipient or its parent company. If you don't see a list of lobbyists, click on the link next to "Parent" near the top of the page.

To get back to the previous page, click the Back button on your browser.

You can click on the name of the lobbyist to see more detail, including who was lobbied and the purpose of the lobbying.

Dollar amounts spent on lobbying are generally rounded to the closest $20,000 when lobbyists report to the Federal Election Commission. If a report said that less than $10,000 was spent, The Times rounded that number to $10,000.

Earmark amounts in the database may not always reflect final costs. Also, a company and a federal agency sometimes might agree to modify an earmark.