6,628 Earmarks Lurch Through Chaotic Government-Funding Process

Hardline conservatives who opposed a six-bill government-funding package stand to bring home nearly a billion dollars combined in earmarked funds within the measure the Senate will consider this week.

House members passed the $460 billion “minibus” funding bill 339-85, which includes 6,628 earmarks totaling $12.7 billion, according to a Bloomberg Government analysis. Readers can access a central Excel doc with all the earmarks here, compiled from the six PDF documents listing the projects published by the House Appropriations Committee. Senators aim to pass the six-bill funding package by the end of the week, averting a partial shutdown this weekend. Members also hope to pass another six-bill package — which would have more earmarks — by a March 22 deadline, which is nearly six months past the beginning of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

The projects in the package would fund the construction of dams, rehabilitate bridges, and provide safety equipment for local police departments. But they don’t guarantee votes in favor of the broader funding package.

Forty-two House members who voted against the bill — 40 Republicans and two Democrats — have $946.5 million in earmarked money in the measure, according to the Bloomberg Government analysis. That includes Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas), whose name appears on $144.3 million in earmarked projects, including $100 million to deepen the Sabine-Neches Waterway. It also includes money sought by frequent opponents of appropriations, such as $50 million for Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), $20 million for Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), and $9.3 million for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

The conservative House Freedom Caucus slammed the first package in a statement Tuesday, saying it’s “loaded with hundreds of pages of earmarks worth billions.” Boebert is communications chair of the Freedom Caucus, according to her website.

Reps. Maxwell Frost (Fla.) and Mark Takano (Calif.), the only two Democrats to oppose the package, have a combined $24.7 million in earmarks.

Absentees, Cuts, Leaders

There are also millions of dollars for earmarks requested by members who are no longer in Congress, a byproduct of the long-delayed funding negotiations, which were technically supposed to be finished by the end of September 2023. The late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who died in September, has her name on 112 earmarks totaling $235 million in the funding measure, including 69 projects totaling $102.2 million offered jointly with Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.). Former Reps. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.), Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), and Chris Stewart (R-Utah) — who resigned over the last year — have more than $90 million combined in earmarks.

Members negotiated small changes to the final set of earmarks nearly until the House held its vote. The House Appropriations Committee posted updated earmark tables that reflected two Democratic projects that had been pulled from the Transportation-HUD bill: a $1 million earmark for the William Way LGBT Community Center in Philadelphia and an $870,000 earmark for The Cupcake Girls, a Nevada organization that works with sex-trafficking survivors and at-risk sex workers. The updated earmark table for the Transportation-HUD bill was created Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. and updated Wednesday at 10:25 a.m., about five hours before the House vote, according to the PDF file uploaded by the committee.

House GOP lawmakers stand to bring home nearly $3.4 billion in earmarked funds. That’s more than the $2.5 billion included by House Democrats, $2.4 billion by Senate Democrats, or $2.1 billion by Senate Republicans. Nearly half the earmarks — almost $6.1 billion — are packed into the Transportation-HUD funding bill, which includes $3.9 billion in funds by House members. The numbers reflect the committee’s designation of which earmarks originate in the House or Senate, though in some cases, projects are marked as originating in the House while also including a Senate cosponsor, or vice versa.

High-ranking appropriators still top the list of earmarkers in the House and Senate. Sen. Susan Collins (R) stands to bring $426.6 million back to Maine, including $340.6 million jointly offered by Sen. Angus King (I). Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) would bring home the most earmarked money as an individual, with $368 million. In the House, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) has the most earmarked funds, totaling $270.4 million.

Collins’ name appears on 168 earmarks, spread across her rural home state. The biggest project totals $20.5 million to replace a passenger terminal at Presque Isle International Airport. Fleischmann, by contrast, has a dozen projects included in the package, led by a $236.8 million earmark for work on the Chickamauga Lock on the Tennessee River.

The Transportation-HUD bill became especially important in fiscal 2024 after House Republicans banned earmarks from the Labor-HHS-Education bill, which was the second-most popular destination for members’ projects the previous year. Senators may still have plenty of earmarks in the Labor-HHS-Education bill, which has yet to be released ahead of a March 22 funding deadline. The difference between the two chambers’ position on that bill contributes to a disparity in the six-bill package currently under consideration. House members have nearly $6.7 billion in earmarks in the package, compared to senators’ $5.1 billion.