Roy Blunt departed the Senate in style last year, helping direct $61 million in taxpayers’ money to a University of Missouri building that the school had named for him. For good measure, he earmarked another $30 million for a Missouri State University building that also bore the Republican lawmaker’s name.
Not to be outdone, departing Republican Sen. Richard C. Shelby and Democratic Sen. Patrick J. Leahy boarded the taxpayer train. Mr. Shelby earmarked $50 million for the University of Alabama, which will host his Senate archives. The University of Vermont got $30 million thanks to Mr. Leahy, who is sending his Senate records to that school.
OpenTheBooks.com, a spending watchdog, said those were among more than $16 billion that Congress dedicated last year to earmarked spending — the pork-barrel projects lawmakers slip into bills for their home districts and states.
After a decadelong hiatus driven by Republicans, Democrats revived the practice of earmarks when they took full control of Congress in 2021.
Even when Republicans regained the House this year, they agreed to continue earmarking — with some new limits.
OpenTheBooks said there is an obvious reason for Republicans to keep the fat flowing: They are just as addicted to the money.
“Restoring earmarks in today’s Congress was like opening a bar tab for a bunch of alcoholics,” said Adam Andrzejewski, the watchdog’s founder. “We must declare our independence from earmarks! By definition, Congress is picking winners and goofing up the marketplace with highly dislocating favors.”
His latest report is a rogue’s gallery of projects that Congress funded for fiscal year 2023.
Mr. Shelby, who retired at the end of last year, was the king of pork with more than $650 million in projects. Republicans also took spots two and three in the Senate and were seven of the top 10.
Still, Democrats held the overall lead, with $9.1 billion to Republicans’ $6.4 billion.
The Brookings Institution published an analysis of more than 3,000 project requests submitted by lawmakers in 2021 and found differences in the way the parties approach earmarks.
Republicans tended to stick with more traditional projects — public works such as roads and bridges available to everyone. Democrats went for what the analysts called “want-based” projects, catering in particular to identity-politics constituencies.
The Brookings study said nearly a quarter of Democratic lawmakers’ requests were aimed at a project defined by race, sex, sexual orientation, age or social class.
OpenTheBooks pointed to one such project: $2 million for National Great Blacks in Wax, a Baltimore wax museum honoring famous Black people.
Rep. Kweise Mfume, Maryland Democrat, told colleagues that the museum needed Uncle Sam’s cash to keep functioning.
“As one of the most visible and viable African American tourist attractions in Baltimore City and the state of Maryland, there must be new building and landscape solutions implemented to improve the safety and visual impact of the museum facility,” he wrote.
He certified that he had no financial stake in the museum — one of the rules Congress imposes on earmarks.
OpenTheBooks said the museum pays tribute to the congressman, who barely breaks the top 100 in seniority in the House, with a wax statue that rivals the likes of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. Mr. Mfume is a former president of the NAACP.
Identity-based museums also have their hands deep in taxpayers’ wallets.
The Korean American National Museum in Los Angeles doesn’t yet exist, but the project received $7 million in federal cash. Another future project, the American LGBTQ+ Museum in New York City, got $3 million to carry out its vision of a space for those in the community to “see themselves as part of history.”
Chicago’s Puerto Rican Cultural Center got $3 million. In Maine, the Irish Heritage Center walked away with $3 million. The center has taken over Portland’s oldest Catholic church, which stopped holding Mass in the late 1990s. Lawmakers said the building needs roof repairs.
Highways, roads and bridges made up about 10% of all earmark spending, OpenTheBooks said.
Among the other types of spending was a splash pad — a sprinkler-infused playground — at Center Line Memorial Park in Michigan. The city also plans to add benches, workout equipment and grills.
The federal government is paying $920,000 toward the project. The Macomb Daily said the local Lions Club chapter donated $20,000.
At one point, the city sought corporate sponsorship in exchange for naming rights.
Federal taxpayers also are spending nearly $23 million to fix sidewalks in 17 neighborhoods, paying for three swimming pools at a total cost of $9 million, and funding three baseball fields for another $2 million.
That includes $500,000 for new astroturf and lighting at the Hammond Avenue baseball field in Philadelphia.
Rep. Brendan Boyle, Pennsylvania Democrat, sold the idea to colleagues as a potential crime-stopper: “The installation of sports lighting will increase the number of games that can be played and the ability to schedule games and team practices during the fall and winter seasons. Bright lights and increased attendance at regularly scheduled sporting events will help to reduce vandalism and crime in the area.”
OpenTheBooks said one particularly galling aspect of earmarks is money sent to wealthy institutions.
When Mr. Blunt shipped $61 million to the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health Building, it was going to a university sitting on a $2.2 billion endowment, the report said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.