David Williams worries about even the mundane earmarks.

As noted previously, many of the earmark requests from North Carolina's Congressional delegation favor such workaday projects as fixing bridges, dredging harbors, and testing local water systems.

Those don't attract the same attention as a teapot museum, but the vice president of Citizens Against Government Waste said they're just as problematic.

"A lot of these projects are very mundane, where people might go, 'That actually looks like it might work,'" he said. "But the money isn't going to where it's most needed in the country, it's going to the places with the most influential members of Congress."

As an example, he said that many local towns need help with a new water system. But since earmarks are determined by clout, the towns that are actually the neediest may not be the ones to get funding.

Williams said it is the process of earmarking, not the end results, that matters. 

An earmarks watchdog said the process has gotten better.

David Williams, vice president of policy at Citizens Against Government Waste, said that Congress has become more transparent about requests for federal spending.

Last year, appropriations bills included the names of members of Congress who had requested the specific earmarks for the first time. This year, members posted their requests for earmarks on their official Web sites.

"It's fantastic," he said. "We've seen some really good strides in the past couple of years to bring transparency to this process."

In previous years, his group had to pore over press releases from members of Congress to see if they had announced they had gotten money. Now, they have more time to look at what the earmarks would do.

"It has cut down signficantly on our work," he said. 

Still, Williams said the group has to remain vigilant. The most recent spending bill was signed much later than usual and some earmark requests remain anonymous.