Last year Charles Black's lobbying firm BKSH & Associates billed about five dozen clients a total of $8.1 million to lobby elected officials and many agencies of the federal government.

Some of Black's clients were looking for earmarks, items inserted into appropriations bills that direct a particular federal agency to spend a specified amount of money on a project that may or may not be clearly identified. Others wanted help monitoring or advocating for projects.

Among the clients:

• Energy giant Occidental International. It wanted work on "general energy issues" in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and "other developing countries;" and "trade issues including economic embargo on Colombia." The lobbying disclosure form reports that the firm lobbied both houses of Congress as well as the State Department. It lists the firm's fee for six months: $160,000.

"Occidental has a lot of interests overseas," Black said. "Sometimes the host governments cause them problems and they seek the help of the U.S. government in resolving those problems."

• United Technologies. It wanted the firm to "monitor federal procurement policies in defense," along with defense appropriations, as well as several tax bills. The six-month fee: $80,000.

• General Motors. It wanted work on Medicare modernization, federal fuel-economy standards and pension issues. The six-month fee: $80,000.

• The Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority. It was looking for appropriations, another way of saying earmarks. The six-month fee: $40,000.

• Methodist Health Care. It was also looking for appropriations. The six-month fee: $60,000.

Hundreds of corporations, universities, hospitals, economic development authorities, cities, counties, water-management districts and other institutions across the country have hired Washington lobbyists in hopes of cashing in on the earmarks explosion of recent years.

Often the earmark requests have received little or no oversight in the appropriations process, which has allowed many members of Congress to do special favors for constituents or for the lobbyists who seek earmarks while helping to fund the election campaigns of those who seek them.

One of Washington's most powerful critics of earmarks as wasteful and irresponsible use of taxpayer funds is Sen. John McCain.

Black, who has given up his lobbying practice to work as an unpaid volunteer for McCain, agrees.

"I believe that his philosophy is correct, that we shouldn't have earmarks, and that it would be better government not to," Black said. "But when I was in the lobbying business, I played by the rules as they were. ... There's no doubt that earmarks have completely gotten out of control."