What is an earmark?

THE CAPE HENRY lighthouse, built in 1792 from the same Aquia Creek sandstone as much of Washington, DC, was America’s first federally funded public-works project. Though it no longer serves its original purpose, it still stands at the windswept southern entrance to Chesapeake Bay as a monument to an early political compromise. Congress delivered it to Southern legislators in exchange for their support of a bill that placed lighthouses under federal control.

Legislative provisions that direct spending to a particular entity or place, like the one that financed the Cape Henry lighthouse, are known as earmarks. Long an essential part of congressional negotiations, they grew so reviled that in 2011, Congress banned them, and then-President Barack Obama refused to sign any bill that contained them. Recently, however, congressional Democrats signalled their intention to end the moratorium. Why?