Earmarks are coming back as House introduces 'community-project funding' guidelines

• The House Appropriations Committee introduced new guidelines for community-project funding, formerly known as earmarks.
• The new guidelines include increased transparency and accountability measures so members cannot abuse the system.
• Republicans banned earmarks in 2011, and Democrats in the House and Senate hope the reforms will gain bipartisan support.

After earmarks were banned in 2011 due to corruption scandals in that late 2000s, the House Appropriations Committee on Friday unveiled its new reforms that accounted for transparency and accountability in community funding.

Earmarks, which Democrats have switched to calling "community project funding," are congressional provisions that direct funds toward a specific project within a community.

While the system was designed for Congress to submit requests for funding that their constituents truly needed, it proved to be easily exploited when in 2005, Alaska Rep. Don Young secured $233 million for the infamous "bridge to nowhere" that few people would have used, and when former California Rep. Duke Cunningham accepted at least $2.4 million in bribes that led him to eight years in prison.

Chair of the House Appropriations Committee Rosa DeLauro said in a statement that the House will begin accepting Member requests for community project funding in appropriations bills in the upcoming fiscal year, which "will allow Members to put their deep, first-hand understanding of the needs of their communities to work to help the people we represent."

"Community Project Funding is a critical reform that will make Congress more responsive to the people," DeLauro said in a statement. "Our bipartisan reforms will produce a small number of projects with strong community support, a transparent process where no member's family can benefit and where projects are audited to ensure money was spent as planned."

According to a fact sheet, the new Appropriations guidelines require:

• All requests to be made online simultaneously with their submissions to committee, and members must certify they have no financial interest in the projects they request;
• A limited approach that bans for-profit grantees, limits overall funding to no more than 1% of discretionary spending, and caps requests at ten per member;
• A mandatory audit of a sample of projects by the Government Accountability Office;
• And Members provide evidence of community support for the projects.

The new guidelines are in addition to the rules that already exist, which include requests made in writing and disclosure of the requests before floor consideration.

With Republicans leading the ban on earmarks in 2011, the new reforms attempt to gain bipartisan support. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said at a press conference on Friday that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has talked to him about the proposals.

"If he wants to propose something, I will look at it," McCarthy said. "But ... it can't be what was around here before. There's got to be accountability."

However, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Fox News on Thursday that "earmarks are very unpopular among Republicans."

In 2020, then Appropriations Chair Nita Lowey decided against bringing back community project funding because of the lack of bipartisan support, but Senate Appropriations Chair Patrick Leahy believes this time around will be different.

"We are in good faith negotiations with the House and my Senate colleagues to bring back congressionally directed spending in a transparent and responsible way, and those discussions are ongoing," Leahy said in a statement. "I believe there is bipartisan support to restore the power of the purse to Congress and I am continuing to work toward that goal."