Six months after Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., joined a House Republican voluntary moratorium on requesting earmarks, his staff met with executives from a cyber security company that requested an earmark to explain their appropriations process, according to internal company emails from the firm released by a group of hackers known as Anonymous.

Though House Republicans requested no earmarks in 2010 and the House Republican leadership agreed to a ban on requesting earmarks--appropriations directed to specific beneficiaries in congressional spending bills--in 2011, there have been some indications that members have found ways around the ban. For example, Rep. James Moran, D-Va ...