House lawmakers are looking to sweeten President Biden s spending package; Hillary Vaughn reports from Capitol Hill.
EXCLUSIVE: $1,750,000 to spruce up the Japanese Garden in Portland. $436,100 for a meditation and restorative yoga program in New Jersey. And $250,000 to expand the Michelle Obama Library in California.
These are just some of the controversial Community Funding Project requests filed by federal lawmakers as earmarks make a return in Congress.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress have asked for almost $6 billion
in additional funding for local projects ahead of the upcoming federal budget, Fox News can reveal exclusively.
And, while many lawmakers have tried to limit their spending to fields such as health care, transportation and education, some of the least critical projects are also the most expensive.
“Somebody spent it, but it wasn’t us,” Chris Pipkin, the town clerk, told The Washington Times this week. “I have no idea what happened.”
Ms. Pipkin’s story serves as a cautionary tale as Capitol Hill revives the practice of earmarks, which had been dormant for the last decade thanks to GOP control of at least one chamber of Congress.
Democrats, now in control of both chambers, have insisted they’ve learned the lessons of the past and can do it right this time around.
The House GOP has already voted to join in, while Senate Republicans are poised to vote Wednesday on what their own approach will be, though key senators say that as long as Democrats are allowing earmarks, those Republicans who want to ask for them will be able to.
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