I just finished putting together an earmark transparency timeline that traces disclosure developments over the last 4 years. Of particular interest is the forward momentum from obscure forms of disclosure to the more concrete. In order of occurrence:

• publishing a list of granted earmarks requests along with the appropriations bill to which they’re tied, to
• requirements to post earmarks requests on members websites, to
• bans on considering certain earmarks unless they’ve been fully vetted, to
• a presidential call for and multiple instances of legislation introduced to place all earmarks request online in a searchable database, to
• markup of legislation implementing full earmark transparency.

The timeline is available here.