The more than 4,000-page $1.7 trillion “omnibus” government funding bill that President Joe Biden has vowed to sign into law includes around $16 billion in pet projects known as “earmarks” whose supporters see as a way for lawmakers to better serve the needs of their constituents but whose detractors often deride as corrupt and wasteful “pork.”
Earmarks are provisions in legislation that set aside funds for specific projects or programs, typically for the benefit of a particular locality or group.
The omnibus appropriations bill’s 7,200-plus earmarks, formally known as Community Project Funding items, include $750,000 for Gender Non-Conforming Housing in New York (pdf), $1 million for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Ohio (pdf), $3.6 million for a Michelle Obama Trail in Georgia (pdf), or $5 million for a salmon reintroduction project in Washington state (pdf)….