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In 2010, the United States Congress placed a moratorium on earmarks – congressionally mandated spending projects. But did the earmark moratorium actually rid public policy of earmarks? I use earmark data and 2010–2020 state-level highway funding metrics to examine the relationship between previously expired transportation earmarks and federal highway funding during the earmark moratorium. Earmarks in the 2005 surface transportation law (SAFETEA-LU) continued to benefit certain states in 2020, even though the projects technically expired in 2009. This is because the funding “formulas” established by all post-2009 surface transportation laws were fully determined by the highway allocation percentage each state received in the preceding year, inclusive of earmarks. Further, I find the relationship between SAFETEA-LU earmarks and state funding disparities strengthened from 2010 to 2020, meaning the expired earmarks increased in policy significance during the moratorium. Highly earmarked states became even more advantaged after the earmarks were institutionalised into the highway funding formula.

Bringing home federal spending projects to the district is a common reelection strategy for members of the U.S. Congress, and congresswomen tend to outperform congressmen in securing district spending. However, for legislators to turn distributive benefits into higher approval and electoral rewards, constituents must recognize that public spending has taken place in their community and attribute credit to the correct public official. I theorize that congresswomen face a gender bias when claiming credit for federal projects, and I test this theory through an online survey experiment. Contrary to expectations, I find no evidence that legislator gender influences the public’s reaction to congressional credit claims, indicating that congresswomen can effectively use distributive politics to counter gendered vulnerability in the U.S. Congress. This research advances the literature on gender and politics by investigating whether a gender bias in credit claiming prevents congresswomen from turning their representational efforts into electoral capital.

Conventional wisdom has long assumed veteran status to be a beneficial credential for political candidates, but the evidence is mixed on the direct association between military experience and electoral success. Rather than a uniformly advantageous candidate characteristic, we argue veteran status is best understood as an influential source cue and issue ownership factor that can be capitalized on by effective campaign messaging. We outline three potential mechanisms through which veteran candidates unlock electoral gains – solidified issue ownership, enhanced trait ownership, and increased salience of advantageous policy issues. We test these expectations with two online survey experiments, randomizing a fictional candidate’s veteran status and the policy topic discussed in campaign messaging. We find veteran candidates can use a combination of veteran cues and policy messaging to gain an advantage over nonveterans. However, veteran candidates stand to benefit most by talking about crime rather than national defense, as a ceiling effect limits veterans’ ability to enhance their service-related issue and trait ownership ratings by messaging on national defense. By reconceptualizing military service as an effective communication tool rather than a uniformly advantageous biographical line, we clarify the substantial electoral value of veteran status in American politics. More broadly, our findings show that voters respond not just to individual cues derived from partisanship or a candidate’s background, but to the interaction of these cues with campaign messaging.

While a large body of research explores the federal-level influences over distributive politics decisions, very little attention has been given to the active role state and local governments play in the geographic distribution of federal funds. Before presidents, legislators, and agency leaders can influence the selection of federal grants, state and local governments must expend time and resources to submit grant proposals. We focus on grant applications as our unit of analysis and advance a theory that congressional representation influences the grant application behavior of state and local governments. We analyze US Department of Transportation grant applications and awards from 2009 to 2022 and find evidence that congressional representation meaningfully influences state-level grant application behavior. States apply more aggressively for federal transportation grants when represented by senators in the Senate majority party, and states apply more efficiently for grants when represented by a senator holding an advantageous committee leadership post.

This book represents the first asymptotic analysis, via completely integrable techniques, of the initial value problem for the focusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation in the semiclassical asymptotic regime. This problem is a key model in nonlinear optical physics and has increasingly important applications in the telecommunications industry. The authors exploit complete integrability to establish pointwise asymptotics for this problem's solution in the semiclassical regime and explicit integration for the underlying nonlinear, elliptic, partial differential equations suspected of governing the semiclassical behavior. In doing so they also aim to explain the observed gradient catastrophe for the underlying nonlinear elliptic partial differential equations, and to set forth a detailed, pointwise asymptotic description of the violent oscillations that emerge following the gradient catastrophe. To achieve this, the authors have extended the reach of two powerful analytical techniques that have arisen through the asymptotic analysis of integrable systems: the Lax-Levermore-Venakides variational approach to singular limits in integrable systems, and Deift and Zhou's nonlinear Steepest-Descent/Stationary Phase method for the analysis of Riemann-Hilbert problems. In particular, they introduce a systematic procedure for handling certain Riemann-Hilbert problems with poles accumulating on curves in the plane. This book, which includes an appendix on the use of the Fredholm theory for Riemann-Hilbert problems in the Hölder class, is intended for researchers and graduate students of applied mathematics and analysis, especially those with an interest in integrable systems, nonlinear waves, or complex analysis.

While the first US troops headed to Bosnia, senators continued to debate whether to back President Clinton's peacekeeping plan. As Clinton returned from his five-day European tour, he faced remaining questions, including: How and when US troops will exit the Balkans; and specifics of his plan to rearm and train Bosnian Muslim troops to create a balance to the Serbs military power when the US exits. Senator [Bob] Dole is pressing for passage of his resolution of support for the plan by the end of the week. Also, after the Pentagon said the Bosnia mission will cost $2 billion, - including funds for \"hazardous duty pay\" - Clinton allowed the Defense appropriations bill to become law. He opposed the $243 billion measure earlier because the amount was higher than he requested. Saying he wouldn't seek a fourth term, Wyoming's Senator Simpson recalled the words of his father, Milward Simpson, a former Wyoming governor and US senator: \"Get out before they throw you out.\" And upon saying he will retire, five-term Senator [Mark] Hatfield said, \"Thirty years of voluntary separation from the state I love is enough.\" Also, Rep. Jimmy Hayes of Louisiana became the fourth Democrat to switch parties since the 1994 election, saying there is no longer room for conservatives in the Democratic Party. Up to 700 logistics, communications, and security specialists could begin setting up a NATO headquarters in Sarajevo today after President Clinton gave orders to send the first US troop contingent to Bosnia. The main body of troops is scheduled to arrive after the Dec. 14 peace treaty signing in Paris. Addressing US troops stationed in Germany, Clinton said they should strike \"immediately and with decisive force\" if threatened in Bosnia. And in his first public appearance in a month, the leader of the Bosnian Serb army, Gen. Ratko Mladic, blasted NATO troops that were poised to arrive last Saturday.

Senator Dole was expected to further cement his lead in \"Super Tuesday\" primaries in six states tomorrow. Steve Forbes, Pat Buchanan, and Alan Keyes say they will continue campaigning until the end of the GOP presidential nominating process. Forbes, who lost New York's primary to Dole, hopes Republicans will adopt his flat-tax plan. Contract talks for striking GM workers in Ohio were set to resume. The strike has halted production at 10 GM plants, idling about 31,000 workers nationwide. The key issues: safety, job security, and the production of parts by outside contractors. Separately, GM filed one of the biggest industrial spying lawsuits against Volkswagen and former GM executive Jose Ignacio Lopez. GM says Lopez took secret plans when he defected to the German automaker in 1993. Margaret Thatcher marked the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill's \"Iron Curtain\" speech at the site of the original talk - Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. Like her predecessor, the former British leader called for a trans-Atlantic economic alliance and cooperation in defending against \"rogue states\" that have chemical and nuclear weapons. She also advocated the expansion of the NATO alliance to include Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

Senator Dole was expected to beat Steve Forbes and Pat Buchanan in today's New York Republican primary. Dole cemented his lead by sweeping all eight primaries Tuesday. He now has one quarter of the delegates for nomination. And Lamar Alexander and Richard Lugar were set to bow out of the race. (Stories, Pages 1 and 4; Opinion and Editorial, Page 20; List at right.) Iran is actively supporting Hamas, the group responsible for recent bombings in Israel, Secretary of State Christopher said. Aiming to show US support for Israel, Christopher is pressuring many nations - including Japan and Russia - to condemn the blasts and isolate Iran. (Story, Page 1.) Palestinian President Arafat approved a life sentence with hard labor for Abu Wardeh, the man accused of masterminding three of four suicide bombings that rocked Israel. He was earlier arrested by Palestinian police. Wardeh, a member of the Islamic militant group Hamas, later told Palestinian radio the bombings were a mistake and harmed the Palestinian cause. Palestinian police raided Gaza's Islamic University and seized the school's mosque - the 16th Hamas-affiliated mosque to be taken over. And Israeli soldiers continued to arrest wanted Palestinian militants in the West Bank. (Story, Page 1.)

Republicans in ten states chose 259 delegates for the GOP presidential nomination. Most candidates acknowledged Senator Dole's momentum: Pat Buchanan said if Dole continues his recent winning streak \"a sense of inevitability will develop\" for Dole (above) to get the nomination. Lamar Alexander said he would quit the race if he can't beat Dole in next week's Florida race. (Dole, Page 1.) President Clinton sent a team of antiterrorism experts to Israel to help combat the recent wave of bombings. The team is carrying bomb-detection equipment for use at border checkpoints. Also, hoping to salvage the Mideast peace process, the US called on Syria to condemn the bombings. (Opinion, Page 20; See also World In Brief.) US officials in Hanoi sent homeward remains believed to belong to five US servicemen missing from the Vietnam War. The repatriation is the first this year in an eight-year joint US-Vietnamese search for the 1,610 GIs the US says are still missing.

The search for four pilots missing after Cuba shot down their planes was set to be called off after two days. The Clinton administration mulled punitive measures for Cuba of the planes, which belonged to Brothers to the Rescue, an Cuban exile group. Its options range from restricting air and telephone contacts to urging a UN embargo. At the UN, the US didn't ask for a legally binding UN condemnation, but opted for a lighter \"presidential censure\" for \"unlawful use of force.\" One disputed issue: whether the planes were in international waters when attacked. Cuba said it recovered the planes in its waters and has radar maps showing their locations. The US disputes that claim. Arizonans go to the polls today to pick 39 GOP presidential nominating delegates - the biggest number yet up for grabs. The Dakotas are holding primaries too. Senator Dole replaced his top strategist and pollster trying to jumpstart his campaign; and he got the blessing of GOP conservative Barry Goldwater. (Stories, Page 1.) The Supreme Court allowed about 2,000 people to pursue claims they were harmed by radiation released in the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Justices also let stand a Florida case that makes it a crime to burn a cross on someone else's lawn. And the court heard arguments in a case about racial inequality in the prosecution of crack-cocaine cases. Five black California men say they were charged in federal court - rather than state court, where penalties are less severe - because they are black. They want the court to require federal prosecutors to answer the allegations of racism, which they have refused to do. A decision is expected in July.