Rep. Tom Cole seeks to limit earmark-driven political headaches

WASHINGTON — House Republican appropriators are weighing changes to the chamber’s earmarking process in order to limit the number of “political” project requests, new House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Monday.

Cole told reporters Monday that while major changes to the earmark guidelines are unlikely as appropriators rush to get their fiscal 2025 bills underway, GOP appropriators want to block projects that could cause them headaches back home.

“Some of these are unobjectionable, some of them create political problems for people,” Cole said. “That’s just the reality of it. I shouldn’t have to have a political problem in my district because I voted for a bill that had your earmark in it.”

House Republicans took umbrage at a handful of earmarks Democrats proposed last year that would have supported the LGBTQ community, and stripped a few from the House’s version of the Transportation-HUD bill.

Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Robert B. Aderholt, R-Ala., voted against the final fiscal 2024 package due to earmarks from the Senate that supported the LGBTQ community and hospitals that perform abortions.

Cole wouldn’t say what changes he is considering, saying only that guidance would be out shortly.

“We don’t have a lot of time this year to be messing around with format,” Cole said. “We’re going to see what we can do to tweak it.”

Members in both parties submit earmarks that the other party would find objectionable, Cole said, noting during the fiscal 2024 process he had to tell Republican members who asked for funding for a shooting range and for a roof repair for a religious facility that it would not be possible to meet their requests.

“All I’m asking is people be considerate and not let these things become issues,” Cole said.

One major change Cole could pursue next year is reinstating House earmarks in the Labor-HHS-Education bill, a subcommittee Cole was the top Republican on for six years. Former Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger, R-Texas, changed the guidelines to prevent House lawmakers from earmarking that measure last year.

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