How do earmarks work now? House members submit written requests for Community Project Funding in appropriations bills; each request is published on the member's own website with the legal name of the recipient, the address, the amount, and a certification that the member has no financial interest in the project; total funding is capped at 1 percent of discretionary appropriations; and for-profit entities are excluded as recipients. That regime, adopted when the House restored directed spending in 2021 after a decade-long ban, represents the current compromise between the old earmark era and the total prohibition of 2011–2020, per the House Appropriations Committee's published rules for each cycle.
Why were earmarks banned — and why did they return?
The 2011 moratorium followed corruption scandals — most infamously the convictions tied to the Abramoff lobbying investigations and a California congressman's conviction for bribery tied to defense contracts. But the ban's critics, spanning both parties, argued it transferred power from the Appropriations Committees to the executive branch: money not directed by Congress is allocated by agencies under formulas they write, and members lost a tool for building coalitions around must-pass bills. The 2021 return, branded «Community Project Funding,» paired restoration with transparency rules designed to prevent the old abuses.
What are the current rules?
- Public request letters: every request posted online by the member simultaneously with submission.
- Eligibility lists: requests restricted to eligible project types per bill — water infrastructure through the Army Corps, housing through HUD-assisted programs, policing equipment, food assistance infrastructure.
- Local government and nonprofit recipients only: no for-profit entities; state and local governments, public universities, and 501(c)(3)s dominate.
- Financial-interest certification: the member attaches a signed certification.
- Statewide caps: committee-set limits on a state's total funding and per-member request counts each cycle.
Where the Senate stands
The Senate restored its own directed-spending practice in 2022 with comparable transparency requirements, though its request processes differ in detail — senators publish request letters and are subject to similar recipient restrictions. Differences between the chambers' lists get reconciled in the appropriations negotiations, where directed projects are among the last items traded.
What do critics and defenders say now?
Critics — including good-government groups and fiscal hawks in both parties — argue the transparency regime narrows but does not remove the corruption vector, and that even clean earmarks inflate spending bills. Defenders counter that the 1-percent cap bounds the fiscal stakes, that publishing every request has made the practice auditable in ways the pre-2011 era never was, and that directed funding routes money to local priorities that agencies' formulas miss — a claim testable project by project in the published lists.
How to track the money
The Appropriations Committees publish each cycle's funded project lists — recipient, amount, purpose — alongside the bill texts, and the watchdog press catalogs them; agencies then report obligations under each account. For readers weighing a specific project, the paper trail now runs unbroken: request letter, committee list, enacted bill text, and agency grant record.
FAQ
Are earmarks limited in size?
Collectively yes — 1 percent of discretionary spending; individually by committee-set per-project, per-member and per-state caps each cycle.
Can a company receive an earmark?
No — for-profit entities are excluded; recipients are state and local governments, public institutions and nonprofits.
Do all members participate?
No — some decline on principle in both parties; participation is voluntary and published either way.
For more context, read Government Shutdown Mechanics: What a Lapse Actually Closes.
For more context, read how a bill becomes a law.
For more context, read How Congress Kills a Federal Rule in 60 Days.