The New York Times’ Ron Nixon reports on “soft earmarks,” a phenomenon where members of Congress implicitly tells federal agencies to allocate money to pet projects. An ethics reform law passed last year forces all hard earmarks—explicit directions by a lawmaker to direct money toward project X—to be disclosed. But the soft earmarks—which rely on inserting language into spending bills like “endorse” and “urges”—put pressure on a federal agency to do the lawmaker’s bidding, or risk losing funding. The State Department, USAID and otheer agencies that run foreign aid programs have been particularly susceptible to this below-the-radar spending. Read Nixon here. MB

This week David Petraeus will answer questions before Congress on the success of “the surge” in Iraq. But the Pentagon’s U.S. Central Command already considers the counterinsurgency tactics employed by Gen. Petraeus to be a farsighted triumph.

The Washington Post’s Walter Pincus reports that the Army, Navy and Air Force command forces are enthused about “irregular warfare,” an “asymmetric approach” to battle. War computer games exercises have educated generals and West Point undergraduates alike about the necessity of the three D’s—defense, diplomacy, and development in future wars.

Speaking as someone with little military knowledge, it sounds as if the Pentagon is ready for a second chance to fight the Iraq War. Read Pincus here. MB

The Federal Aviation Administration’s reputation may have hit a low point last week. Two agency inspectors told Congress that FAA officials cozy with Southwest Airlines executives had stymied their inspections of Southwest planes.

But the Wall Street Journal’s Andy Paztor reports that the FAA has been an astute regulator in tackling a different problem: ice getting stuck in modern jet engines. Here, the agency’s coziness with airline executives may have even helped the agency identify a problem. Today the FAA will announce new flight procedures to curtail the problem of ice getting stuck in engines during flight and possibly producing flameouts. Read Paztor here. MB