Earmarks

An earmark refers to funds in a budget or legislation set aside for a specific project, recipient, or purpose, often within a particular congressional district. These were outlawed in 2011 but returned again in 2021. They were cancelled because of outrage over the $223 million dollar bridge to nowhere. In the last congress ear marks came to 8,000 projects costing $15 billion. Here are some examples of odd things. One million for a Maine lobster survey. One million for a LGBTQA center in New York. $800,000 for a mobile music lab in Maryland. Unusual but not as bad as USAID. $70,000 for a DEI musical in Ireland. $47,000 for a transgender opera in Columbia. $11 million got Middle East version of Sesame Street in Iraq. USAID was not earmarking just odd spending.