When Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) heard from the Department of Defense that the agency was withholding 12 percent of a $1 million medical research earmark Nelson had secured for the University of Nebraska, he learned about a widespread but little-known practice among federal agencies -- taking a cut from earmarked funds, some for unrelated purposes as varied as staff salaries and postage stamps. Nelson dubbed it "earmark simming." This week, the New York Times reported on this practice. Apparently, according to a Congressional Research Service study that [Nelson] ordered, the federal government has no umbrella legal authority that allows agencies to take a cut of each earmark, and it has no overall standard for how much agencies should take. The Tiimes story says that OMB is currently preparing a governmentwide report, due in March 2009, that will examine how much each agency takes from earmarks and for what purpose. The first question may not be why it should take at least ten months to prepare the report but... how much will it cost?