Exclusive: Center for Renewing America Decries the $8 Billion in Omnibus Earmarks

Conservative News DailyMarch 11, 2022

The Center for Renewing America launched on Friday a primer on the roughly $8 billion in earmarks in the $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.

The Center for Renewing America (CRA) — the conservative organization founded by former Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought — released a detailed primer on many of the more egregious earmarks in the $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill, which passed through the Senate yesterday with bipartisan support.

The 2022 omnibus spending bill is particularly significant, as it is the first bicameral funding package to include earmarks in over ten years. Conservatives have long opposed the inclusion of earmarks, believing it to lead to waste, fraud, and abuse. The CRA noted that the Republican-led Congress banned the practice of earmarks in 2011 following the Tea Party movement.

“This congressional ban has remained in place for over a decade, serving as one of the few notable fiscal and ethics victories in recent memory,” the CRA noted.

The conservative organization observed that lawmakers are resurrecting earmarks during a time when Americans continue to grapple with skyrocketing inflation, a war in Ukraine, and rising energy prices.

To help Americans better understand what earmarks their lawmakers voted for, the CRA launched a primer on the spending. It documented some of the more deplorable earmarks in the omnibus spending bill, including this list of 33 projects which totals to over $56 million:

$1,600,000 for “equitable” growth of the shellfish industry in Rhode Island
$500,000 for a Diversity and Inclusion program at Worcester State University
$475,000 for the Race, Inclusion, and Social Equity Institute at Ohio State University
$424,000 to replace sidewalks at a country club in Avon, Connecticut
$775,000 for an LGBT center in Los Angeles
$500,000 for the Nansen Ski Jump club in New Hampshire
$569,000 for removal of derelict lobster pots in Connecticut
$605,000 for a greenhouse in NYC
$945,000 a kelp forest survey in Oregon
$4,200,000 for improvements to sheep experiment station infrastructure in Idaho
$2,000,000 for reducing inequity in access to solar power
$1,000,000 for workforce training related to clean energy and green building in Minneapolis
$100,000 for Center for Race Equity in Education in Connecticut
$2,500,000 for biking trails in Vermont
$286,000 for climate-smart family forests in Vermont
$300,000 for a behavioral workforce initiative in Illinois
$1,000,000 for sidewalk repair in Louisville
$2,000,000 to educate, digitally connect, and road building for indigenous coffee producers in the country of Columbia
$3,000,000 for a fisherman co-op in Guam
$1,350,000 for water tanks in Prince George’s County, MD
$1,979,000 for a climate center at George Mason University
$765,000 for planning for the future of Maine Lobster industry
$95,000 for a virtual paddle experience at an NOAA office
$925,000 for a barn in Vermont
$2,000,000 for an algae bloom monitoring program in Biscayne Bay
$750,000 for a sports complex in Las Vegas
$10,000,000 for sugarcane research in Louisiana
$700,000 for a Bull Trout research facility in Washington
$2,000,000 for an EV ferry pilot program in Alaska
$10,000,000 to demolish a hotel in Alaska
$300,000 for a job training program at Joe’s Movement Emporium in Maryland
$2,465,176 for a museum & planetarium in Vermont
$50,000 for a desert museum in Arizona

The CRA emphasized that earmarks lead to corruption, public distrust, wasteful spending, and skewed priorities.

“Lawmakers should forcefully resist the temptation to resurrect earmarks and restore the ban immediately,” the CRA concluded in their primer.”This inherently corrupt practice will only grease the skids for passing massive bills that are harmful, accelerate inflation, increase unethical abuse of taxpayer money, and further public distrust between the American people and their representatives.”

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.