The Hill reports that lobbyists are organizing to defend earmarking.

“A group of firms have been meeting to identify the best way to raise awareness of the very real value of earmarking, and to provide some balance to what has been, to date, a largely one-sided debate,” Bill Ferguson, CEO of the Ferguson Group, said in a May 11 memorandum obtained by The Hill.

“We have decided to form an informal coalition, tentatively called the Earmark Reform and Education Coalition, with the overall goal being to foster a rational conversation about earmarking among all interested parties, so that we can preserve what works and reform what does not.”