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Vote no, take the dough: Earmarks in the minibus

W.H. eyeing emergency funding for Maryland bridge and Port of Baltimore

Durbin punts hearing with airline, payment CEOs

News: Details on House GOP training

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Vote no, take the dough: Earmarks in the minibus

Happy Thursday morning. Go UConn Huskies.

News: Congress approved more than $71 million in earmarks for lawmakers who voted against the most recent minibus spending bill, according to a Punchbowl News analysis.

This is a prime example of what former Speaker Nancy Pelosi says: They voted no but took the dough.

Look for yourself: We have a simple spreadsheet of the lawmakers who landed projects and then voted against the $1.2 trillion spending package. Passage of this bill last week finally ended the long fight over FY2024 government funding. How long? Congress and the White House are already working on FY2025.

Now before we dive in, let’s be clear. These earmarks were requested long ago, far before the contours of the minibus package were set.

But it was once unheard of for a member or senator to get an earmark in a bill and then vote against the legislation. That’s the whole point of earmarks. Today it’s relatively commonplace.

The prime examples are Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Bennet, who said he voted against the bill because it didn’t include any new Ukraine aid, got $25.9 million in earmarks in the six-bill package. Many of the earmarks were joint projects with Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), who voted for the bill.

But some items — $889,900 for the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum, for instance — were Bennet’s alone.

Sanders got $15.3 million in earmarks for everything ranging from Vermont Folklife, to the Very Merry Theatre, to the University of Vermont. Yet Sanders ultimately voted against the package because it banned funding for UNRWA, the Palestinian relief organization, while providing more than $3 billion in new military aid to Israel.

Sanders got an impressive $3 million for the Community Health Centers of Burlington, for instance.

Sanders also touted the $15.3 million in funding he got despite voting against the package.

Republicans are hardly innocent here.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said he voted no because “[t]he status quo is unsustainable, and this bill is more of the same.” Yet Tuberville secured $2.7 million for a new storm shelter in Demopolis, Ala., as part of the legislation.

Rep. Mike Guest (R-Miss.), the chair of the House Ethics Committee, bagged $4 million for Purple Creek flood mitigation and restoration in Ridgeland. He voted no.

Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), who helped craft the Fiscal Responsibility Act that dictated the spending levels in the bill, got $3.5 million for the East Baton Rouge Parish mayor’s office of homeland security and emergency preparedness.

Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah) created a nifty graphic explaining why he was against the bill — the need for more fiscal responsibility. But Curtis obtained a hefty $2.4 million for the Neffs Canyon debris basin project.

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) conceded that he voted against the bill yet procured earmark funding. To be clear, he got $4.3 million.

House Democrats got in the vote-no-get-dough game too.

Rep. André Carson (D-Ind.) got $1.38 million for the Mars Hill Flood Control Improvement District. Carson even tweeted on Tuesday that he secured cash for his district. But he voted no as well.

The main takeaway here is that earmarks aren’t the carrot they used to be. Back in the day, if a lawmaker did that to an Appropriations Committee chair or their leadership, those senior colleagues may have even crossed out that funding while the bill was on the floor. Or alternatively, the offending lawmaker would be told in no uncertain terms they’re never getting another earmark ever again.

But things aren’t the way they used to be. Party leaders wait so long to pass appropriations bills that they can’t cut off anyone. Or if they did, the member would start howling on social media. Better to just grin and bear it.

— Jake Sherman, Andrew Desiderio and John Bresnahan

April event alert! Join us on Thursday, April 18 at 9 a.m. ET as Punchbowl News Managing Editor Heather Caygle will interview Rep. John Joyce (R-Pa.). They’ll discuss the news of the day and how 5G supports America’s global competitiveness. RSVP!

THE NEXT LEGISLATIVE BRAWL

W.H. eyeing emergency funding for Maryland bridge and Port of Baltimore

Add to the legislative docket during this incredibly busy election year: A massive package to help rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore and account for the economic impact of the structure’s collapse.

Let’s be entirely clear: Congress is going to have to appropriate a lot of money — perhaps more than $1 billion — to help rebuild the bridge and potentially aid the Port of Baltimore, which is reeling from the economic impact of the Dali’s crash. The port could be closed for another six weeks.

Senior Hill aides are already saying that the package will take time to draft and pass. Any legislation to address the deadly disaster is certain to become a target for other pet projects and key lawmaker priorities. In other words, this will become a must-pass bill.

It will be another headache for Speaker Mike Johnson, who will likely again have to rely on Democratic votes — thus swallowing Democratic priorities — to get it across the finish line.

Nothing is easy to pass in the 118th Congress, and this won’t be any different. But federal and state officials have been highlighting the urgency of rebuilding the bridge and ensuring that normal operations at the Port of Baltimore can resume quickly. The port is a major commercial hub for the East Coast and one of the busiest in the country.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said it’s “likely” that the administration will ask Congress to “help top-up” some emergency funds.

“Infrastructure is, or at least ought to be, a bipartisan priority,” Buttigieg declared.

What’s next: On an immediate basis, the Biden administration can tap into a few different emergency funds that can be deployed quickly. But Hill aides cautioned that it will likely take weeks to determine exact cost estimates. This would almost certainly require congressional action, likely in the form of a supplemental funding bill.

“Right now at the federal level, we’re actively exploring the use of ‘quick release’ emergency relief funds in partnership with Secretary Buttigieg and the urgent deployment of congressionally approved funding,” said Rep. David Trone (D-Md.), who sits on the Appropriations Committee.

It’s also worth noting that President Joe Biden asked Congress to plus-up two of these emergency funds as part of his domestic-focused supplemental funding request back in October.

One fund is controlled by the Federal Highway Administration. Buttigieg noted on Wednesday that the bipartisan infrastructure law authorized money for the agency’s emergency relief fund, which currently totals roughly $950 million. But as Buttigieg also said, the fund is used for projects nationwide.

The other fund is known as the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program, which is administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. These funds can be released when the president declares a disaster in a particular state or local jurisdiction.

The Maryland legislature is working on an economic relief package as well, although officials and state lawmakers haven’t said how much they’re going to spend in addressing the disaster.

— Andrew Desiderio and Jake Sherman

CREDIT CARDS

Durbin punts hearing with airline, payment CEOs

The Senate Judiciary Committee will no longer have a credit card competition hearing in early April with the CEOs of Mastercard, Visa, United Airlines and American Airlines, according to a source familiar with the planning.

This is a delay, we’re told, and not a cancellation. Negotiations between the committee and aviation and payments executives are ongoing.

Senate Judiciary Committee chair and Majority Whip Dick Durbin told us last Tuesday he’d encountered “resistance” from the would-be participants after inviting the CEOs to testify about credit card competition in February.

This hearing is part of Durbin’s broader campaign against credit card swipe fees. Besides the banking and payments sector, no industry is more opposed to Durbin’s Credit Card Competition Act than the aviation industry. Credit card programs are a huge part of airline profits.

The hearing delay was first reported by Politico.

Durbin told us last week the four companies offered alternative executives to serve as witnesses for the April 9 hearing because the CEOs were “too busy.” The Illinois Democrat said at the time he wasn’t satisfied.

— Brendan Pedersen

STAFF REPORT

News: Details on House GOP training

New: House Republicans are expanding their internal staff training program aimed at helping Hill aides gain on-the-job training for top roles.

The Republican “Level Up” professional development program is hosting legislative director and chief of staff training sessions in the next month. The legislative director session scheduled for next week has already received 120 applicants.

Per the House Administration Committee, 70% of staffers who took part in the Level Up sessions have been promoted to the position they received training for.

Staff makes Congress tick. Behind-the-scenes training efforts like these are crucial at a time of high member and staff turnover.

Along with the Administration panel, Speaker Mike Johnson’s office and the Republican Conference run the Level Up program.

“By continuing the Level Up program, House Leadership and the House Administration Committee are helping staff develop skills that will prepare them for lifelong careers serving the American people,” Johnson said in a statement.

— Max Cohen

THE CAMPAIGN

News: The Jewish Democratic Council of America, a progressive pro-Israel group, is endorsing primary challengers to Democratic Reps. Cori Bush (Mo.) and Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.).

Jewish Dems are backing prosecutor Wesley Bell to unseat Bush and Westchester County Executive George Latimer to take down Bowman. It’s the latest sign of a pro-Israel backlash to Bowman and Bush’s often harsh criticism of Israel and support for Palestinians, this time from a group distinctly to the left of AIPAC.

The organization also rolled out a wide variety of endorsements in contested congressional races.

In Senate races, the group is backing Reps. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Colin Allred (D-Texas) and former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-Fla.).

In red-to-blue flip opportunities in the House, the group is backing Kirsten Engel, Adam Gray, Rudy Salas, Will Rollins, Dave Min, Adam Frisch, Christina Bohannan, Lanon Baccam, Curtis Hertel, Monica Tranel, Tony Vargas, Mondaire Jones, Josh Riley, Michelle Vallejo and Missy Cotter Smasal.

— Max Cohen

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