Earmarks Hypocrisy: NASA’s Moon Rocket and the Pork Debate
Congress banned earmarks from 2011 and brought them back in 2021. They now run as Community Project Funding in the House and Congressionally Directed Spending in the Senate, carried in the annual appropriations bills. As of November 2026, House members may each request up to 20 projects, for-profit recipients are not eligible, and total earmarks are capped at 1 percent of discretionary spending, with the House’s share at half of one percent. The NASA program behind this 2006 argument also changed: the Constellation program and its Ares I rocket were cancelled in 2010. Its successor, the Space Launch System (SLS), carried four astronauts around the Moon on Artemis II in April 2026.
What the 2006 post argued
In 2006 a space-policy blogger argued that some critics of congressional earmarks were inconsistent. The same people, the post said, strongly backed NASA’s Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS), the 2005 plan for returning astronauts to the Moon.
The argument went like this. Critics of earmarks said that money set aside for lawmakers’ pet projects took money away from real space exploration and science. The author agreed with that and called most earmarks wasteful projects that did little for the exploration and development of space.
The author then said that much of the ESAS plan worked the same way. In the post’s view, NASA had chosen to stay in the business of launching crews and cargo to orbit when it could have bought those services. It paid contractors such as ATK billions of dollars to build a launch vehicle based on the Space Shuttle’s solid rocket booster, which the post called “an oversized bottle rocket.” The post noted that even strong supporters of ESAS fell back on the “political realities” of funding shuttle-derived vehicles. The author called that an earmark: a giveaway to lawmakers (the post used the slang “congresscritters”) whose votes NASA needed, with little to do with building a lasting economy beyond Earth.
The post made the same complaint about the Robotic Lunar Exploration Program (RLEP), whose management NASA moved to Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama. The author called the move politically motivated and “yet another earmark for Alabama.”
In both cases, the post argued, NASA had cheaper and more effective options and took the path of least political resistance. The author concluded that critics who attacked earmarks while backing large NASA-run projects built to spread work across congressional districts were hard to take seriously. The full post appeared on the blog Selenian Boondocks.
Was any of it an earmark under the rules?
No. Under congressional rules, neither example was an earmark. Since the 110th Congress (2007 to 2008), House and Senate rules have defined an earmark as funding a member of Congress requests for a specific recipient or place, outside the normal competitive or formula process. The Ares I booster contract and the RLEP move were agency decisions and authorization choices, not member-requested line items.
The post used the word in its looser, political sense: spending shaped by which districts and states get the work. That debate over “parochial” spending outside the formal earmark process has continued, and the 2011 earmark ban did nothing to end it.
What happened to the shuttle-derived rocket
The rocket the post criticized never flew a crew. Its booster design survived, though, and still flies today.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2005 | NASA’s ESAS report picks shuttle-derived rockets, including Ares I with a booster built by ATK |
| February 2010 | The Obama administration proposes cancelling Constellation and dropping the return to the Moon |
| October 11, 2010 | NASA Authorization Act of 2010 signed; it directs NASA to build the Space Launch System and reuse Constellation contracts and workforce |
| April 15, 2011 | P.L. 112-10 formally ends Constellation, lifting an earlier ban on terminating it in P.L. 111-117 |
| 2018 | Northrop Grumman acquires Orbital ATK, the successor to ATK, and takes over SLS booster work |
| November 2022 | Artemis I flies SLS and an uncrewed Orion around the Moon |
| April 1 to 10, 2026 | Artemis II carries Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen around the Moon |
Both sides of the old argument can find support in this record. Supporters of the shuttle-derived approach note that Congress itself wrote in 2010 that NASA should use existing contracts, workforce and investments, and that SLS has now flown a crewed lunar mission. Critics like the 2006 blogger point to the years of delay and to the administration’s own fiscal 2026 budget request, which proposed phasing out SLS and Orion after Artemis III in favor of commercial options. Congress then added multi-year Artemis money in the July 2025 reconciliation law, and as of November 2026 SLS remains funded.
What happened to the lunar robotics program
NASA reversed the RLEP decision within about a year. Management had gone first to Goddard Space Flight Center in February 2004 and then to Ames Research Center in California in late 2005.
A May 26, 2006 memo from Scott Horowitz, then head of NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, renamed the effort the Lunar Precursor and Robotic Program and placed its office at Marshall. Ames kept a smaller office for small spacecraft. According to SpaceNews, Horowitz said the main reason was to link the robotic program with Marshall’s early work on the human lunar lander’s descent stage. An editorial account in SpaceRef claimed instead that Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Marshall’s center director, Dave King, pushed for the move. That was a news-site editorial report, not an official explanation.
In March 2007, SpaceRef reported, citing unnamed NASA sources, that the Marshall office was being shut down or sharply cut back, with coordination returning to NASA headquarters. The program’s main mission, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched in 2009 under Goddard’s management.
What happened to earmarks and to PorkBusters
Earmarks went from a target of reform to a formal ban and back to a regulated process.
From 2006 to 2010, the porkbusters.org address was home to PorkBusters, a campaign run by bloggers against congressional earmarks. Its organizers urged readers to call members of Congress, track pet projects in spending bills and send in examples of wasteful spending. That campaign ended long ago. The site now runs under new, unrelated ownership as PB Spending Watch, an independent, nonpartisan explainer of federal spending and the budget.
The steps since then:
- 2007 to 2008: The 110th Congress adopted earmark disclosure rules requiring sponsors’ names to be published.
- 2011: House Republicans and then the Senate adopted a moratorium. The Congressional Research Service notes that it was never written into either chamber’s standing rules. It rested on party conference rules and committee practice.
- 2021: The House and Senate Appropriations Committees brought earmarks back for fiscal 2022 under new names and new rules.
- Fiscal 2025: Congress funded the government through a full-year continuing resolution, so no earmarks were enacted that year.
- Fiscal 2026: Earmarks returned in the enacted bills. Roll Call reported nearly $15.5 billion in earmarked funding enacted by mid-February 2026. The Agriculture bill (P.L. 119-37) alone carried 746 projects worth $931 million.
How earmarks work in November 2026
Each member can request projects. The committees review them, and every request is published online with the sponsor’s name.
House Appropriations Committee guidance for fiscal 2027 limits each member to 20 Community Project Funding requests. Recipients must be state or local governments or eligible nonprofits; for-profit entities do not qualify. Each project needs a link to an existing federal program authorization. Members must certify that they and their immediate family have no financial interest in the project. Requests cover one year only.
Fiscal 2027 began on October 1, 2026 without any full-year spending bills in place. The Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027 (H.R. 6500, P.L. 119-103) passed the Senate 90-6 and the House 370-48, and was signed September 2, 2026. It funds agencies through December 11, 2026. Continuing resolutions generally do not carry new earmarks. The fiscal 2027 projects members requested in spring 2026 will be funded only if Congress passes full-year bills that include them, and that work now falls to the post-election session before the December 11 deadline.
FAQ
Is Community Project Funding the same thing as an earmark?
Yes. It is the House’s name for earmarks, and Congressionally Directed Spending is the Senate’s. The names changed when earmarks returned in 2021, along with stricter rules: public disclosure, no for-profit recipients in the House, and a cap of 1 percent of discretionary spending.
Why were earmarks banned in 2011?
After scandals of the 2000s and campaigns such as PorkBusters, both parties faced pressure over spending tied to individual members. House Republicans adopted a moratorium after the 2010 elections, and the Senate followed in 2011. The ban was a party and committee practice, not a formal chamber rule, which made it easy to lift in 2021.
Was NASA’s Ares I rocket ever built?
One test flight, Ares I-X, flew in 2009, but the full rocket was never finished. Congress and the Obama administration ended the Constellation program in 2010 and 2011. The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 directed NASA to build the Space Launch System instead, which uses an upgraded version of the same shuttle-derived booster.
Did Artemis II fly?
Yes. Artemis II launched on SLS from Kennedy Space Center on April 1, 2026 and splashed down off San Diego on April 10. Its four-person crew passed Apollo 13’s 1970 record for the farthest humans have traveled from Earth.
Can the public see who requested an earmark?
Yes. House and Senate rules require each member to post their requests online. The appropriations committees publish tables listing each project, its amount and its sponsors alongside each bill.
Do earmarks increase total federal spending?
Not directly. Earmarks are set aside within the totals the appropriations committees already set, and the 1 percent cap limits their share. Critics argue they make big spending bills easier to pass. Supporters argue they let members who know local needs direct money that agencies would otherwise allocate.
Sources
- Congressional Research Service, “Lifting the Earmark Moratorium: Frequently Asked Questions” (R45429)
- Congressional Research Service, “Overview of Continuing Appropriations for FY2027 (Division A of P.L. 119-103)” (R49353), Congress.gov
- Congressional Research Service, “Agriculture and Related Agencies: FY2026 Appropriations” (R48564), Congress.gov
- Congressional Research Service, “The Future of NASA: Space Policy Issues Facing Congress” (R41016)
- House Appropriations Committee, Guidance for Community Project Funding, fiscal 2027
- NASA, Artemis II mission updates and FY 2026 President’s Budget Request summary
- White House, “Congressional Bill H.R. 6500 Signed into Law,” September 2026
- Roll Call, “Earmarks flood spending bills after a year’s hiatus,” February 2026
- SpaceNews and SpaceRef reporting on the 2006 lunar robotics program reassignment
About this article
- Fact-checked before publication.
- Published · Updated
