An insider’s primer (or rant) on 'pork'
posted by Delia Christina
Work, as usual, is kicking my ass. Tomorrow I’m supposed to take the Metra train out to the end of the Milwaukee West line to pitch a conservative GOP congressman’s staffer on why they should include my organization on his list of projects for the FY11 fiscal year. It'll be my third such meeting in the past month - which means I’m submitting 3 proposals to 3 different congressional offices for earmarks. Yeah, I’m talking about pork!
When folks get upset about 'pork' it's really clear they have no frakking clue what it takes to get it. And when politicians get huffy about it, it makes me even angrier because they should freaking know better. (I'm talking to you, McCain!)
The whole process is a crap shoot - especially if you're not a hospital, museum, research facility, university or extremely loaded agency with juiced up board members and/or lobbyists or consultants. If you’re like my agency, you send someone like me to talk to a staffer, pitch your org, gauge their interest and then fire a short proposal into the air and if it lands, we all cross our fingers.
Because the process doesn’t stop there.
If you're lucky enough to actually get through the district staffer then you have to get through the DC staffer, who'll be creating the priority list for the congressman/senator to review and approve. And then, if you survive that round, you still might not make the final list submitted to the appropriations committee. (If you’re submitting in a competitive district then the office only wants to back up proposals that have a good chance of making it. And if the environment is hostile toward earmarks, staffers want to make sure they beat the odds. So your little bitty proposal is competing with hundreds, when the office only wants to submit four. Nice, huh?) If you make it onto the committee list you might have a chance of making it through to the omnibus bill, but it all depends on how the budget negotiations for that fiscal year proceed.
In other words, when you're not hooked up with a lobbyist or a personal connection to the elected official, if a little org like mine gets 'pork' it is a frakking miracle. And sheer luck.
But once you get it, you don't really 'get' it. The process shifts from being discretionary ('hey, they do good work and could use some support') to a formal grant process, with all the attendant headaches. Have you ever written a grant proposal for a federal agency? They are frakking long, complicated and onerous. Most human services agencies don't have the capacity to write one because it takes an experienced team to do one well. There are budgets, narratives, assurances, logic models, research, and metrics that have to be submitted. In other words, these congressional awards aren’t a walk in the park - they make you work for your pork. They want every staffer or dollar accounted for - if you say you're going to spend $87.50 for a brochure, at the end of the award year your expenses better damn well reflect $87.50 spent for a brochure.
If you survive the grant application process (which could take a while) then it needs to be reviewed by their legal and compliance folks, which takes even more time. Then, if you are up to muster, you finally become a contractor with the federal government. When it comes to pork, you don't just receive a fat check in the mail to do with what you will. They either disburse it in small chunks per quarter or you incur the initial cost of providing the service and they reimburse you for the expense - later.
There is nothing ‘easy’ about pork.
And don't even get me started on how long it takes for this process to roll out. If you're applying for the FY11 appropriations year, anticipate getting money in your hot little hand maybe 18-24 months after you submitted your proposal. That's FY13. Do you have any idea what that does to an organization’s budgeting and forecasting process? How can you plan/hire for that program when the means for that program won't exist for another 18-24 months? And how do you count that money? Is that included in your FY11 budget or the fiscal year of the receipt of the pork?
And?!? This is one-time money. That's it. One year of funding to pilot or support a program and then - poof! Gone. It's a lot of effort for brief relief.
On the other hand, it’s a lot of effort for a community org to get funding to provide services to needy populations. It can mean the birth or expansion of a program, the survival of staff and the strengthening of a community. That's the only payoff that makes pursuing pork worthwhile.
So don't talk to me about how pork is ‘evil’ until you’ve walked over the coals to get it. Grrr.
Ok. Work-rant over. Carry on.
When folks get upset about 'pork' it's really clear they have no frakking clue what it takes to get it. And when politicians get huffy about it, it makes me even angrier because they should freaking know better. (I'm talking to you, McCain!)
The whole process is a crap shoot - especially if you're not a hospital, museum, research facility, university or extremely loaded agency with juiced up board members and/or lobbyists or consultants. If you’re like my agency, you send someone like me to talk to a staffer, pitch your org, gauge their interest and then fire a short proposal into the air and if it lands, we all cross our fingers.
Because the process doesn’t stop there.
If you're lucky enough to actually get through the district staffer then you have to get through the DC staffer, who'll be creating the priority list for the congressman/senator to review and approve. And then, if you survive that round, you still might not make the final list submitted to the appropriations committee. (If you’re submitting in a competitive district then the office only wants to back up proposals that have a good chance of making it. And if the environment is hostile toward earmarks, staffers want to make sure they beat the odds. So your little bitty proposal is competing with hundreds, when the office only wants to submit four. Nice, huh?) If you make it onto the committee list you might have a chance of making it through to the omnibus bill, but it all depends on how the budget negotiations for that fiscal year proceed.
In other words, when you're not hooked up with a lobbyist or a personal connection to the elected official, if a little org like mine gets 'pork' it is a frakking miracle. And sheer luck.
But once you get it, you don't really 'get' it. The process shifts from being discretionary ('hey, they do good work and could use some support') to a formal grant process, with all the attendant headaches. Have you ever written a grant proposal for a federal agency? They are frakking long, complicated and onerous. Most human services agencies don't have the capacity to write one because it takes an experienced team to do one well. There are budgets, narratives, assurances, logic models, research, and metrics that have to be submitted. In other words, these congressional awards aren’t a walk in the park - they make you work for your pork. They want every staffer or dollar accounted for - if you say you're going to spend $87.50 for a brochure, at the end of the award year your expenses better damn well reflect $87.50 spent for a brochure.
If you survive the grant application process (which could take a while) then it needs to be reviewed by their legal and compliance folks, which takes even more time. Then, if you are up to muster, you finally become a contractor with the federal government. When it comes to pork, you don't just receive a fat check in the mail to do with what you will. They either disburse it in small chunks per quarter or you incur the initial cost of providing the service and they reimburse you for the expense - later.
There is nothing ‘easy’ about pork.
And don't even get me started on how long it takes for this process to roll out. If you're applying for the FY11 appropriations year, anticipate getting money in your hot little hand maybe 18-24 months after you submitted your proposal. That's FY13. Do you have any idea what that does to an organization’s budgeting and forecasting process? How can you plan/hire for that program when the means for that program won't exist for another 18-24 months? And how do you count that money? Is that included in your FY11 budget or the fiscal year of the receipt of the pork?
And?!? This is one-time money. That's it. One year of funding to pilot or support a program and then - poof! Gone. It's a lot of effort for brief relief.
On the other hand, it’s a lot of effort for a community org to get funding to provide services to needy populations. It can mean the birth or expansion of a program, the survival of staff and the strengthening of a community. That's the only payoff that makes pursuing pork worthwhile.
So don't talk to me about how pork is ‘evil’ until you’ve walked over the coals to get it. Grrr.
Ok. Work-rant over. Carry on.
Labels: ding, earmarks, political process, politics, pork, work
Posted at 9:34 AM
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