This article in the Washington Post yesterday on the earmarking process cites letters sent to the Department of Energy written by members of Congress including Rep. Rahm Emanuel in support of projects at the Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago and the Illinois Institute of technology.

We recently received the correspondence logs from DOE and there were at least 15 similar letters. Although none of these seem to have actually secured the funding, we have found that writing in support of a specific project is not unique to just one lawmaker or only to the DOE either. For instance EPA’s correspondence list several organizations that have received backing from various lawmakers.

Other than letters asking for funding this set of DOE logs also list letters written by Rep. Henry Waxman, where he asks DOE to preserve any communications received from the White House officials using Republican National Committee or other nongovernmental e-mail accounts.

Another letter from Rep. Brad Miller, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight requests information from the DOE regarding whether any similar meetings of employees occurred at which results of the past elections or political strategies for future elections were discussed…”