A Look at Earmarks

The More things Change, the more they stay the same.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Despite President Obama's vow to reign in earmarks -- pet projects lawmakers use to divert money to their home districts -- it looks like it may be business as usual in Washington.

Three of the top 10 earmark recipients from last year have already submitted requests for next year in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Reps. John Murtha, D-Pennsylvania, Peter Visclosky, D-Indiana, and Ike Skelton, D-Missouri, have requested earmarks totaling more than $320 million.

House members originally had until Friday to submit their earmark requests and to publish them on their individual Web sites as required under Obama's new guidelines. But that date has been moved to Saturday at 5 p.m. because the House Appropriations Committee Web site where the requests were to be posted was overwhelmed and running "very slow," a committee staff member said.Last month, the president signed a $410 billion spending bill -- that the White House said was necessary to finish "last year's business" and fund the government through the end of this fiscal year -- laden with 8,570 earmarks.

Shocker about Murtha.