Porkers: Appropriations Says It’s Feeding Time!
The memo below dates from a time when Senate earmark requests were kept private. That changed after this post. Congress made members disclose their earmarks starting in 2007, banned earmarks entirely from 2011, and brought them back in 2021 as Community Project Funding (House) and Congressionally Directed Spending (Senate). As of November 2026, every request is posted publicly with its sponsor. Funding cannot go to for-profit companies, and the Government Accountability Office audits a sample of funded projects. FY2027 earmarks are on hold while the government runs on a stopgap that expires December 11, 2026.
What the post published
PorkBusters published the letter below and said it came from a reliable source. According to the post, Senate Appropriations Committee staff sent it to Republican Senate staffers. PorkBusters headlined it as “feeding time” and bolded the line it saw as most revealing: the promise that request lists would stay confidential. The post also pointed readers to RedState, another conservative blog covering the same story.
The examples in the memo suggest where it came from. LIHEAP (the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) is funded in the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education bill. The sample joint request is “Specter / Harkin.” In the mid-2000s, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) chaired that Senate subcommittee and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) was its top Democrat. The sample grantee, Temple University in Philadelphia, is in Specter’s home state.
Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
Republican Request Format for FY’07
The instructions to Senate offices
The memo told majority (Republican) offices how to submit funding requests. As posted, it said:
- Member requests were due April 5, 2005. That is the date as published, even though the PorkBusters campaign itself only started in September 2005.
- Offices should submit two kinds of requests. One was state-specific projects, such as “$1 million for Smith Hospital.” The other was budget line items for national programs, such as “$5 billion for LIHEAP.”
- Every request had to come in a signed letter. Offices also had to send their senator’s ranked list of projects and program priorities electronically. The memo stressed that projects and programs were different things. For a program request, offices had to type “PROGRAM, ” (capital letters and dashes) before the program or grantee name.
- Offices were asked to “be realistic” about their priority lists. A senator should not have 50 top priorities. The memo also promised: “Remember, these lists will be held confidential by the committee.”
- Requests for bill or report language went in a separate Word file or email.
- Disks with the request database were available in room SD-184 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Each disk came with a packet of guidelines on what could and could not be funded.
- Questions went to a named committee staffer, whose name was removed in the published version. The form was for majority members only. Minority offices had a separate contact, also removed.
Filling in the electronic database
The memo gave these steps for the Microsoft Access request file:
- Save the file to your computer. Do not open it straight from the disk or an email.
- Open the file and fill out one form for each request.
- Fill in every field. The committee would send incomplete forms back.
- Click “Next” to move to the next form. Saved entries could be edited later.
- To delete a whole record, click “View Table,” select the row with the gray button at the far left, and press “Delete.” The memo warned that deleted data could not be recovered.
- Close the database. It saves all records automatically.
- Save the file back to the disk, or burn it to a CD, and return it to the committee staffer.
What the request letter had to include
The paper letter had to repeat everything on the electronic form. At the top, a header block listed:
- Member. For a joint request, one senator’s name, a slash, then the other’s (for example, “Specter / Harkin”).
- Staff contact. The staffer’s direct phone line, not the main office number.
- Agency.
- Account.
- Request amount.
- Legal grantee name and statement of purpose. For example: “Temple University, Philadelphia, PA to expand academic support services for undergraduate students.” The memo stressed that the legal name of the organization receiving the money had to come first.
After the header, the letter needed:
- A one- or two-paragraph description of the project.
- A detailed statement of purpose saying exactly what the money would pay for, such as curriculum, renovation or construction. Offices were told to check which uses each account allows for federal funds.
Why the confidentiality line mattered
The promise of confidentiality drew the most attention because it was the basis of the old system. Committees chose which requests to fund, and the public only saw the results, if at all, once the bill text and committee reports were released. Usually no record showed which senator had asked for which item.
That is why secrecy became a central argument for PorkBusters and other critics. Bloggers Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) and N.Z. Bear launched the campaign after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It asked readers to name local projects they would give up to help pay for recovery, and it tracked which members of Congress had promised cuts. The campaign supported an amendment from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) to move money from Alaska’s Gravina Island bridge, known as the “Bridge to Nowhere,” to rebuilding the Interstate 10 bridge over Lake Pontchartrain, which Katrina had damaged. The Senate rejected the amendment by a wide margin.
Supporters of earmarks, including many appropriators in both parties, said something different. In their view, members know their states’ needs better than agency staff do, and the Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse.
What changed after 2005
The confidential process described in the memo no longer exists.
| Period | What happened | Who acted |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Disclosure rules required each earmark’s sponsor to be named. The Senate rules came in the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007. | House and Senate |
| November 2010 | House and Senate Republicans adopted voluntary earmark bans for the 112th Congress. | Republican conferences |
| February 1, 2011 | Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) announced a moratorium covering the FY2011 and FY2012 bills. This followed President Barack Obama’s pledge in his 2011 State of the Union address to veto bills containing earmarks. | Senate Appropriations Committee |
| 2011 to 2021 | Congress observed an earmark moratorium until the House reinstated earmarks in 2021. | Both chambers |
| 2021 | House Democrats restored them as Community Project Funding. The Senate brought them back as Congressionally Directed Spending. | Appropriations committees |
| FY2026 | Earmarks returned to enacted law on November 12, 2025, when the bill that ended a 43-day shutdown (H.R. 5371) included full-year Agriculture, Military Construction-VA and Legislative Branch funding. The final package, H.R. 7148 (P.L. 119-75), passed the Senate 71-29 and the House 217-214, and became law February 3, 2026. | Congress and President Donald Trump |
The FY2026 laws show how large earmarks are today. According to the Congressional Research Service, the Agriculture bill included 746 projects totaling about $931 million. The Transportation-HUD law provided $2.4 billion, which CRS says is 14% less than in FY2024.
How earmark requests work now (November 2026)
Today, earmark requests are public, capped, limited to nonprofits and governments, and audited. Some steps would look familiar to the 2005 memo’s readers: a request form, a deadline, and a named agency and account. The big difference is that the public can see who asked for what.
House: Community Project Funding
House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) released the FY2027 guidance on February 25, 2026. The rules include:
- Each representative could submit up to 20 Community Project Funding requests, spread across the appropriations bills that accept them.
- Each request needed evidence of community support.
- Only accounts on the committee’s eligible-accounts list qualify. Deadlines varied by subcommittee, for example March 13, 2026 for Agriculture and March 20, 2026 for Defense and Energy-Water.
- Members must post their requests online and certify that they and their families have no financial interest in any project.
Senate: Congressionally Directed Spending
Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) released the Senate’s FY2027 guidance on March 18, 2026. Requests are accepted from both parties. For-profit entities cannot receive funding. The committee will have the Government Accountability Office audit a sample of enacted projects and report back to Congress.
Where FY2027 earmarks stand
No FY2027 earmark has become law yet. The government is running on a continuing resolution, Division A of P.L. 119-103. It funds agencies at FY2026 levels through December 11, 2026, and the House passed it 370-48. Stopgaps like this generally do not create new earmarks, so funding for those projects depends on Congress passing full-year bills. The House has passed 3 of the 12 regular bills. One is Agriculture, which CRS says contains 592 earmarks totaling $604 million. The Senate had not passed any.
FAQ
Were earmark request lists really kept secret in 2005?
According to the memo PorkBusters published, Senate Appropriations staff told offices their lists “will be held confidential by the committee.” At the time, no rule required the sponsor of each earmark to be named publicly. Disclosure rules followed in 2007, and today every House and Senate request is posted with the member’s name.
When were earmarks banned, and when did they come back?
House and Senate Republicans adopted voluntary bans in November 2010. Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye announced a committee moratorium on February 1, 2011. Earmarks stayed out of spending bills until 2021, when the House brought them back as Community Project Funding and the Senate as Congressionally Directed Spending.
What is the difference between Community Project Funding and Congressionally Directed Spending?
Both are earmarks: money a member of Congress directs to a specific project in their state or district. Community Project Funding is the House term, and Congressionally Directed Spending is the Senate term. Each chamber sets its own rules. For FY2027, the House let each member submit 20 requests, and both chambers bar for-profit recipients.
Can a company receive an earmark today?
No, not directly. Both chambers bar for-profit entities from receiving this funding. Eligible recipients are mainly state and local governments and certain nonprofits. Critics, including the Heritage Foundation, say private firms can still benefit indirectly, for example as contractors on funded projects.
How much money goes to earmarks now?
Totals vary by year and bill. In FY2026, CRS counted 746 Agriculture projects worth about $931 million and $2.4 billion in Transportation-HUD earmarks. Since 2021, House rules have capped total earmarks at 1% of discretionary spending.
Who was behind PorkBusters?
PorkBusters was a blogger campaign started in September 2005 by Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit and the blogger N.Z. Bear. It tracked which members of Congress promised to give up local projects to help pay for Hurricane Katrina recovery, and it publicized documents like this memo. The campaign ran until about 2010.
Sources
- Congressional Research Service via Congress.gov: “Agriculture and Related Agencies: FY2026 Appropriations” (R48564)
- Congressional Research Service via Congress.gov: “Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) Appropriations for FY2026” (R48728)
- Congressional Research Service via Congress.gov: “Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2026 Appropriations” (R48970)
- Congressional Research Service via Congress.gov: “Overview of Continuing Appropriations for FY2027 (Division A of P.L. 119-103)” (R49353)
- Congressional Research Service: “Agriculture and Related Agencies: FY2027 Appropriations” (R49343)
- House Appropriations Committee: “Cole Releases FY27 Programmatic, Language, and Community Project Funding Guidance” and FY27 Member Requests Guidance
- Senate Appropriations Committee: “Senators Collins and Murray Release FY2027 Appropriations Guidance” and FY27 Appropriations Requests and Congressionally Directed Spending
- Government Executive: “Inouye: No earmarks for the next two years” (February 2011)
About this article
- Fact-checked before publication.
- Published · Updated
