Cole eyes axing HUD earmarks for nonprofit organizations

Senate appropriators, who allow lawmakers in that chamber to earmark the Labor-HHS-Education bill, had fewer earmarked dollars in the HUD account, originating a total of $1.1 billion in EDI earmarks.

‘Political’ projects

Cole has vowed to try to limit the number of “political” projects following some controversies during the last cycle, specifically about earmarks supporting the LGBTQ community in the Transportation-HUD and Labor-HHS-Education bills.

“Some of these are unobjectionable, some of them create political problems for people,” Cole said this week. “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.”

It’s not exactly clear if there would be exemptions to the ban, though sources say Republicans are considering allowing colleges and universities to continue to receive earmarks under the program. Local governments and Native American reservations are not expected to be affected by the potential change.

Last summer, House Republicans took the unusual step of stripping $3.6 million for projects that Democrats submitted that would benefit LGBTQ community from the initial Transportation-HUD bill.

Ultimately one of those earmarks made it back into the final Labor-HHS-Education bill due to Senate backing, but Democrats are on guard for any further tweaks to the process. House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro said Tuesday that any changes that would block funding for LGBTQ-related projects “can’t fly.”

“How do you continue when you so politicize a process?” DeLauro said. “Should we now start to go through every project on the Republican side? We agree with this, we don’t agree with that, we agree with this? Hell no.”

DeLauro, D-Conn., said she did not expect Cole to pursue changes along these lines.

And even if House Republicans do further limit the projects that Democrats can request, Senate Democrats are unlikely to go along.

The Senate allows earmarking of the Labor-HHS-Education bill, and will continue to allow funding for EDI earmarks for nonprofits in the Transportation-HUD measure for fiscal 2025. Senate appropriators released their updated earmark guidance on Wednesday.

During fiscal 2024, House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Chairman Robert B. Aderholt, R-Ala., voted against the final package due to Senate earmarks for LGBTQ programs and hospitals that perform abortions, along with other earmarks he found objectionable.

“We got rid of all of our poison riders, and Schumer wouldn’t agree to take away their poisonous earmarks,” Aderholt said at the time, referring to Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y.

Aderholt doesn’t appear to have secured any EDI earmarks for nonprofits in his district, but plenty of other top GOP appropriators did — including Granger, who got $5 million into the final bill for the YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth, and $3 million for Tarrant Area Food Bank, also in Fort Worth.

Peter Cohn and Herb Jackson contributed to this report.