Earmark
Definition
An earmark, officially called congressionally directed spending or Community Project Funding, is a provision in an appropriations bill that sets aside federal money for a specific local project a member of Congress requests, rather than letting an agency decide how to allocate the funds.
Why it matters
Earmarks let individual members deliver visible, named benefits to their district, which can buy votes for a broader spending bill from members who might otherwise oppose it. Reformers banned earmarks from 2011 to 2021 over corruption concerns before Congress restored them with disclosure requirements, arguing transparency was a better fix than an outright ban.
Seen in the wild
With the federal government operating under continuing resolutions rather than full-year appropriations bills for much of FY2025, congressionally directed spending requests went largely unfunded that year, according to National Association of Counties tracking of the process.1