A year ago, conservative Republicans in Congress celebrated when GOP leaders refused to fund thousands of local spending projects in a long-term government funding measure. But it didn’t last long. Earmarks are back on Capitol Hill — big time.
Just this week, a bipartisan package of four government funding bills included more than 4,000 home state projects, 155 of them in Georgia.
In the process, GOP leaders brushed aside conservative opposition.
“There’s always trepidation when it comes to earmarks,” said U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Athens.
Clyde is one of four Georgia Republicans who had no earmarks in the 12 government funding bills for 2026. Also waving off earmarks were U.S. Reps. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, Rick Allen, R-Augusta, and Mike Collins, R-Jackson.
But not all of the state’s Republicans have avoided local funding plans. For example, U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-St. Simons Island, won $5 million in a transportation funding bill to widen I-16 near Savannah.
“We need it because we are booming in the coastal area,” Carter told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “When we’re using it for infrastructure like this, it’s going to directly benefit our constituents.”
Georgia Democrats have made no apologies for trying to bring home the bacon.
“The funding that I secured supports our counties, towns, schools and community organizations,” said U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany.
Once again, the most prolific state lawmakers when it comes to earmarks are Georgia’s two U.S. senators. Sen. Jon Ossoff sponsored 50 projects in this final spending “minibus”package. Sen. Raphael Warnock had 18 of his own projects, and the two senators teamed up together on another 31 items. All of that totals to over $103 million in funding coming back to Georgia.
Ossoff has been especially aggressive in using his seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee to bring funding back to the state. That has prompted public complaints from a few GOP senators, worried that it’s helping Ossoff’s reelection bid.
If you dig deep enough in this latest funding package, you can even find some earmarks from a former Georgia member of Congress who often derided pork barrel spending.
That’s right. Even though Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene stepped down from the U.S. House earlier this month, her name is still on a few local projects.
Greene won $1 million for road work, $1 million for sidewalk construction and $1 million for road widening in her district.
Greene may be gone from Congress, but her projects live on. It’s sort of like GOP opposition to earmarks. Many Republicans criticize pork barrel spending — but the chance to help folks back home was too much to ignore.
Jamie Dupree has covered national politics and Congress from Washington, D.C., since the Reagan administration. His column appears weekly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more, check out his Capitol Hill newsletter at http://jamiedupree.substack.com
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