House GOP leaders’ new earmark requirements are stirring up consternation and confusion in the final days before Wednesday’s deadline for lawmaker requests.

One GOP source estimated that House Republican Appropriations staffers had received hundreds of phone calls from members’ offices in the last two weeks about the new leadership standards. Most of the questions centered on how to fill out the earmark request form mandated by House GOP leaders this year. However, some members called because they were just learning that they had to satisfy new requirements.

Republican leaders set new transparency guidelines at a January retreat at time when the party is split over earmarks. Included were broad statements prohibiting money for taxpayer-funded projects named after lawmakers, known as “monuments to me,” and bans on “air-dropping” earmarks into bills late in the conference process.

 After the retreat, many Republicans remained confused about how leaders intended to interpret those standards. Leading the way was Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), an aggressive earmark foe who ticked off a series of questions in a four-page letter to Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).

 “Specifically, who will be charged with insuring compliance of the reform standards among earmark-seeking Republican House members?” he asked.

Flake also wanted to know if the standards applied to all earmarks or just those in spending bills, whether they applied to individual earmark requests or bipartisan earmarks, how “monuments to me” would be defined and whether lawmakers could seek additional funds for already established monuments.

 “If we have learned nothing else about earmark reform provisions, we know that, even when their intent is clear and the provisions are enshrined in the rules of the House, ways can be found to circumvent them,” he wrote.

 Republican leaders have held briefings with legislative directors, and meetings with ranking GOP committee members and GOP committee staff directors. In addition, they have spelled out members’ new responsibilities in a memo distributed conference-wide in early March. Boehner followed up with a “Dear Colleague” letter last week.

  “We’re continuing to get folks answering questions from offices and trying to make this as clear and easy as possible,” said Boehner spokesman Mike Steel.

 Along with funding requests, potential earmarks recipients must fill out and sign a detailed form certifying that none of the funding will break the new GOP standards. They must sign a letter stating that they have no financial interest in the earmark and give those letters to the committee chairmen shepherding the legislation where the earmarks would be inserted.

 In addition, prior to a floor vote on the bill that includes the earmark, Republicans must place a detailed finance plan in the Congressional Record once an earmark is secured. The finance plan must include the bill number and account, the legal name and address of the entity receiving the earmark, a description of how the money will be spent and why the use of taxpayer funding is justified. In addition, the recipient of the earmark must sign a form stating how the money will be used, and describe any matching funds they would provide.

 “Exceptions for previously named buildings, programs or projects should be fully justified and vetted,” the leadership memo states under the heading “No More ‘Monuments to Me.’”