At a meeting during the February recess between senior leadership aides and legislative directors about the new earmark guidelines, several aides asked tough questions about how to interpret the questions on the form. They also asked what would happen if members did not support the new guidelines and refused to sign the new certification form, according to several GOP aides and three Republican lawmakers.

The reply from leadership: Members who don’t sign on will not have leadership support for any earmarks they bring to the floor.

“It has been conveyed by senior staff that leadership will not support earmarks that violate any of the guideline we laid out,” the staffer said.

Lewis has been meeting with Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) to work through all the questions and possible interpretations of the guidelines, and Boehner’s spokesman, Michael Steel, said everyone is cooperating.

"All of the House Republican leaders, along with committee ranking members, are working to help our members comply with the groundbreaking series of earmark reform measures we outlined at our retreat,” he said. “We have received nothing but cooperation on these common-sense reforms thus far.

“Democratic leaders are the only ones holding up any real earmark reform in the House,” he added.

There have been some signs that Democrats might change their mind about supporting an earmark moratorium. Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), who chairs the Agriculture Committee, predicted that the decision has already been made at the leadership level.

“I don’t think we’re doing earmarks this year,” he said flatly. “We’re not giving in, we’re leading.”

Lewis’s Appropriations spokeswoman, Jennifer Hing, said her boss is assisting “in helping members’ offices comply with the leadership guidelines.”

But several GOP lawmakers and top aides to members said Lewis was forced to comply with a leadership-driven initiative that came late in the appropriations game and prompted a series of questions about compliance. It has created new work for staffers right before the March 19 deadline for members to turn in their earmark requests.

Some Republicans have not given up hope that a conference-wide moratorium on earmarks, rejected at a GOP retreat earlier this year, could still be adopted. They are urging Republicans to take up the moratorium before Democrats accept one, thus eliminating a GOP political advantage. Reps. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) urged House Republicans to impose a moratorium at a conference meeting last week.

Certainly, Pence argues, GOP leaders should have the right to target members’ committee assignments if they won’t comply with the earmark guidelines Republicans already voted to adopt.

Pence said he lost his seat on the Agriculture Committee when he launched a campaign against Boehner for minority leader two years ago, and members know there are consequences when they challenge their leaders.

“I don’t have any sour grapes,” he said. “I knew the risk to what I was doing.”