The recent for-profit earmark ban called for by the House Appropriations Committee and across the board earmark ban adopted by House Republicans may lead to an increase in increase in “phone-marks” in place of earmarks. As Paul Blumenthal notes on the Sunlight Foundation’s blog, “’Phone-marks’ are the practice of lawmakers lobbying executive agencies to give money to particular organizations. Lawmaker lobbying could easily be instigated by an outside lobbyist or campaign contributor seeking funding for a project. And, of course, there is no transparency in this process.”  However, this process would certainly be more complex than the current earmarking process.  Not all lawmakers would have the same ability to use this practice effectively, and small companies would run the risk of alienating potential Congressional supporters if they attempted to request this type of action without a clear understanding of the Congressional appropriations process.