Republicans Splinter Over Billions Some Sneaked Into Bills To Fund Their Pet Projects

Some conservative members of the House Republican majority are sounding the alarm over billions of dollars allocated for localized projects included in recently passed funding bills.

The lower house passed two bills on January 22, providing $1.3 trillion in funding for seven government departments. The bills also included billions of dollars in earmarks — projects in congressional districts — a practice the Republican Conference has rejected for a decade.

The same day, 136 House Republicans — but no Democrats — voted in favor of legislation to remove the allocations from the funding plan, but the effort was defeated by a bipartisan coalition.

“Earmarks are the currency of corruption in Washington. They fuel waste, incite abuse and funnel taxpayer dollars to niche projects,” Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Monday. “Republicans should not adopt this practice, especially in the wake of the recent fraud scandal in Minnesota and with our national debt now exceeding $38 trillion. » (RELATED: Seven Democrats Challenge Party to Defund ICE)

U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, Republican of Idaho, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, January 22, 2026. The U.S. House of Representatives approved 2026 funding bills that now go to the Senate ahead of a January 30 deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown. (Photo by Alex WROBLEWSKI / AFP via Getty Images)

Parcel assignments total billions among hundreds of items, and include numerous multi-million dollar expenditures for localized projects, including $5,746,000 for Alabama Community College, $4,000,000 for Jackson Parish Hospital in Louisiana, $3,049,000 for the University of Nevada at Reno, and $2,304,000 for a County of Fresno.

Congress informally banned earmarks in 2011 after the process became linked to abuse, with a record 15,000 earmarks costing $29 billion in 2005 — including an infamous $80 million project in Alaska dubbed the “Bridge to Nowhere” — as well as corruption scandals involving the earmark process that resulted in convictions. Former President Barack Obama promised in his 2011 State of the Union report to veto any legislation with specific measures, saying “the American people deserve to know that special interests do not clutter legislation with pet projects.”

“Restoring benefits after a ten-year moratorium was a mistake,” South Carolina Republican Ralph Norman told the DCNF in a statement. “The ban existed because earmarks too often led to waste, favoritism, and spending driven by politics rather than priorities, and I am not convinced that current transparency rules solve this problem.”

“Congress absolutely must exercise its fiscal management authority, but that responsibility means spending smarter, not restarting practices that fuel Washington’s spending addiction. With our debt at record levels, taxpayers deserve discipline, not more excuses to spend,” Norman added. (RELATED: Senator Chris Murphy almost promises there will be another shutdown because DHS is “murdering” people.)

A critic of the legislation, U.S. Rep. and Freedom Caucus member Chip Roy (R), Republican of Texas, speaks with Rep. Ralph Norman, Republican of South Carolina, during a House Rules Committee hearing to discuss the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” after the Senate passed the legislation earlier in the day, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, July 1, 2025. (Photo by DREW ANGERER/AFP via Getty Images)

The practice was reintroduced by a Democratic Congress in 2021 with the renaming of “Community Project Funding” in the House and “Congressional Directed Spending” in the Senate. Affect reintroduction, surfaced in former President Joe Biden’s 2022 omnibus funding package and included promises increased transparency, a ban on for-profit beneficiaries, caps on overall funding and improved auditing.

“You would never let a pack of hyenas live in your house — you shouldn’t be any less willing to let Congress book it,” Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee wrote in a Jan. 8 post on

After 2021, appropriations have increased “in number and amount” with each fiscal year. A Department of Agriculture Disclosure reports annual growth in allocations for the department from 2022 to 2024, including “$331 million for 237 [earmarked] items in FY 2022, $456 million for 329 items in FY 2023, and $753 million for 600 items in FY 2024.” (RELATED: 76 Republicans vote to maintain exclusions for groups that change spending plan on child sexuality)

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 15: Mike Flood (R-NE), Chairman of the House Main Street Caucus, speaks during a press conference on the government shutdown at the U.S. Capitol on October 15, 2025 in Washington, DC. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) held the press conference with members of the Main Street Caucus and spoke about the status of negotiations as the government shutdown enters its 15th day. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“It’s not worth being in Congress if you can’t find ways to help your district,” Nebraska Republican Rep. Mike Flood said, Politico reported. “Despite everything that’s wrong with Congress, this process works. And it works well…And we’re bringing it under budget.”

“You need Democratic votes, right? So let’s not forget that,” Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Scott Perry said, according to Politico. “I’m not here to apologize for, or validate, a bunch of Republican bullshit. But we’d have a lot more time to make sure it didn’t prevail if we didn’t need Democratic votes.”

The third American president, Thomas Jefferson, in 1796 warned of “earmark”-type processes emerging as “a scene of eternal jostling among members over who can get the most of their state’s wasted money; and they will always get the most from the meanest,” according to Citizens against government waste.

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