Brand new House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) is shaking up the earmark process, and Democrats aren’t happy about it, claiming this is all about cutting off funding to LGBTQ-related projects.
In a “Dear Colleague” to members today, Cole declared that non-profits can no longer receive earmarks.
Cole is also giving members only until May 3 to get their earmark requests in for the FY2025 spending bills. That’s a really fast turnaround considering that Congress just passed the last of the FY2024 bills a month ago.
Here’s Cole:
This gets a little complicated, but it really only impacts certain earmarks under the Transportation-HUD spending bill. On their own volition, House Republicans – meaning Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), who wanted to be Appropriations Committee chair – banned similar earmarks on the Labor-HHS bill.
This left THUD, as it’s known, as the only vehicle for such earmarks. And now Cole is cutting that off.
Back in a July 2023 THUD markup, several LGBTQ-related earmarks were removed from the bill under a Cole amendment. This set off a huge fight within the subcommittee, with Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) calling the move “bigoted” and “insane.”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) released her own statement today bashing Cole’s announcement.
Here’s DeLauro:
There are several points to make here.
→ Republicans included millions of dollars of earmarks for non-profits in last year’s THUD bill for some of their most endangered members. For instance, vulnerable GOP Rep. David Valadao (Calif.) got $9 million for a homeless shelter. New York GOP Reps. Andrew Garbarino and Anthony D’Esposito steered more than $6.6 million to two different non-profits. Even former Appropriations Committee Chair Kay Granger (R-Texas), who is retiring, got $5 million for a Fort Worth YMCA. All these would be barred under the new policy.
→ Cole is under pressure from more conservative Republicans on this issue. Of course, many DEI, transgender and other culture war-related provisions from House Republicans didn’t make it into the final FY2024 spending bills. But a ban on flying LBGTQ Pride flags at U.S. embassies did. The White House has vowed to overturn this ban.
→ The House already allows members fewer opportunities to offer earmarks than their Senate counterparts. For instance, the House doesn’t do earmarks on the Labor-HHS or Financial Services and General Government bills. The Senate does. This disparity puts House appropriators at a disadvantage when negotiating with the Senate on the final version of annual spending bills.
— John Bresnahan
