Over the weekend, the Myrtle Beach Sun took a look at the earmarks:

Nonprofit agencies in South Carolina received about $4.7 million this fiscal year in federal earmarks from legislators who critics say do little to check the financial backgrounds of the agencies and nonprofit executives who are put in charge of spending tax dollars.

CREW's Melanie Sloan explained how that is allowed to happen.  There isn't a lot of oversight of earmarks anyway, but it's even less for "smaller" amounts:

Melanie Sloan, executive director of taxpayer watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said government oversight of earmark spending is spotty at best.

"There aren't many auditors at these federal agencies, and those auditors aren't going to be looking very closely at something a member of Congress earmarks," said Sloan, whose nonpartisan group aims to promote accountability in government.

The relatively small dollar amounts given to nonprofit agencies also leads to less oversight, Sloan said.

"They [auditors] aren't going to get riled up over half a million dollars," she said. "It's unlikely anything will happen."