"GOP Attempts To Skirt Earmarks for Water Projects Running Aground"

"One of congressional Republicans' major attempts to regain a say over water resources projects while maintaining their self-imposed earmark ban may have hit a brick wall.

Under the ban, lawmakers haven't been able to name an individual project in legislation authorizing or funding lock, dam, levee and ports projects unless that project has already been proposed to Congress by the White House.

In practice, that has left it up to the administration to decide whether a flooding problem in California merits study to determine if there's a national interest in fixing it, or whether a Texas port authority's request to make a change to a harbor deepening project already underway should be accepted."

Annie Snider reports for E&E Daily April 24, 2015.