House members of progressive 'Squad' grab more than $220 million of earmarks since 2023

Members of the "Squad" of progressive lawmakers in the House of Representatives, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., wrangled more than $220 million worth of earmarks included in spending bills since the start of fiscal year 2023, according to a watchdog group.

"These eight members, up from 6 last year, have put almost $220 million worth of earmarks into the last two years of congressional spending packages, for causes like environmental justice, diversity, and immigration assistance," read a new report from OpenTheBooks.com.

According to the watchdog group, "each member of the House of Representatives can request up to 15 earmarks," meaning 8 members could request as much as 120 earmarks per appropriations package each year.

The Squad members in the House were behind 108 earmarks during the time frame covered in the analysis, according to OpenTheBooks.com. "The first six of 12 bills that will fund the federal government this year contained 6,582 earmarks worth $13.78 billion, split almost evenly down party lines. In 2023, the 12 bills were stuffed with 7,510 earmarks worth just over $16 billion" the report says.

 

"Earmarks allow Congress members to set aside lump sums of cash for pet projects in their home state or district. They were banned for 10 years because of concerns they could fund waste and corruption, but both Democrats and Republicans have reinstated the practice in recent years with separate votes," the group also said.

Some of the highlighted earmarks in the report were:

• $850,000 for a community center near George Floyd Square in Omar's district dedicated to creating more jobs because Floyd’s death in 2020 “added to the stress faced by the community and increased the need for support and stability in housing and commerce.”
• There was also $1.7 million for a "Green Tech Park" in the district represented by Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., that would be sent by a group that's dedicated to helping "marginalized communities in preparing for climate change’s adverse effects."
• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., sponsored a $500,000 earmark for "Queens Oysters." This particular earmark was dedicated to building an oyster reef to “address long-standing environmental justice inequities facing underrepresented communities in Queens.”
• Ocasio-Cortez also sponsored a $1.2 million earmark for the Muslim Women’s Community Center that would be applied to the purchase of a "three-story community center for the International Muslim Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment" in her district.

OpenTheBooks.com reported that the founder of the organization teaches a self-defense move called a "hijab grab" that involves a "kick to the groin."



Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, sponsored an earmark for $1 million for the San Antonio College Empowerment Center, which currently operates an "Undocumented Student Support Program" that reportedly assists undocumented immigration with their college enrollment process, according to OpenTheBooks.com.

A spokesperson for the watchdog group told Just the News that the organization hasn't fully analyzed the $1.2 trillion spending package that President Biden signed on Saturday but their early estimate is that the Squad is behind about $3.5 million of earmarks in that legislation.

Earmarks are now formally known as Congressionally Directed Spending Requests in the Senate and Community Project Funding in the House. Earmarks were temporarily outlawed as a practice in Congress in 2011. The ban was lifted by both Republicans and Democrats in Congress in 2021.

Many Republicans in Congress such as Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky have been outspoken about returning to a ban on earmarks. 

"It's leading to generalized inflation," Paul said on the Senate floor in March. "So, not only are they ignoring the general welfare clause, which means that spending and taxation is supposed to help everyone equally – has to be for a general cause such as the national defense that we don't have for Maine or Rhode Island or Kentucky, the national defense is for everyone, it is a general cause, but when we spend it on parochial causes, when we run up this enormous deficit, it hurts us all generally."

Other Republicans, such as Reps. Burgess Owens of Utah, and Erin Houchin of Indiana, have defended the practice. 

"Keep in mind as representatives we are the closest to the people," Owens said during an interview on Capitol Hill in March. "If there's a body that knows what the people really care for and need it is the House."