Thoughts on Senate Pork: Virginia’s Nonprofit Earmarks and a Warning from North Carolina
This 2006 post questioned grants to private nonprofits tucked into Virginia’s state budget. That question still applies, because Article IV, Section 16 of the Virginia Constitution still bars state appropriations to charities the Commonwealth does not own or control, and the attorney general’s office ruled on budget items like these several times between 2011 and 2013. In Congress, earmarks were banned from 2011 and came back in 2021 as Community Project Funding in the House and Congressionally Directed Spending in the Senate. They now come with public disclosure, a certification that the sponsor has no financial interest, and a cap of 0.5% of discretionary spending for House fiscal 2027 requests. As of November 2026, fiscal 2027 earmarks depend on the full-year spending bills. Until those pass, the government is funded by a stopgap law (H.R. 6500) that runs through December 11, 2026.
Where this post came from
The post was published under the PorkBusters name. PorkBusters was a campaign run by bloggers from 2006 to 2010 against congressional earmarks. It often reposted pieces by other bloggers, and this one came from a Virginia blogger at http://www.onemanstrash.blogspot.com/. The campaign’s focus was federal pork, especially in the Senate. This post instead dealt with state money: grants to nonprofit groups in Virginia’s two-year budget, and how little coverage they got from reporters in Richmond.
Pork in Virginia’s budget and the Richmond press corps
The blogger’s main complaint was that the budget included grants to private nonprofits that might break the state constitution, and that almost no reporters were looking at them.
The 2006 budget deal
In June 2006, word came on a Saturday that Virginia’s budget fight was over, for everything except transportation. It had been a long fight. The General Assembly ended its regular session on March 11, 2006, without a budget, because the House and Senate were deadlocked over how to pay for roads. Governor Tim Kaine then called a special session that lasted into the summer.
The deal that ended it covered a two-year budget of more than $70 billion. Transportation funding was left for a later session. The blogger wrote that legislators were congratulating themselves after agreeing to spend heavily on projects and to cut or trim a few taxes along the way.
The nonprofit grants and the constitutional question
Inside the compromise were small grants to a range of nonprofit organizations. The blogger said these were items “that I noted way back in January.” He added that the list had probably changed since then. Another Virginia blogger, the Jaded JD, had argued the week before that some of these grants might not be allowed under the state constitution.
The provision at issue is Article IV, Section 16. It prohibits the General Assembly from appropriating public funds, personal property or real estate to any charitable institution the Commonwealth does not own or control. It has a few narrow exceptions, such as nonsectarian institutions for reforming young offenders. It also lets the legislature authorize counties, cities and towns to fund charities themselves.
Later legal opinions supported the reading the bloggers had relied on:
- Gifts versus contracts. Opinions from the Virginia attorney general’s office drew a line between a gift to a charity, which the section forbids, and a genuine contract for services, which it allows.
- A broad definition. One opinion found that nonprofit land trusts count as “charitable institutions” under the section.
- Specific budget amendments. A January 2011 opinion, issued while Ken Cuccinelli was attorney general, concluded that certain proposed budget amendments were not permitted under the section, even though they were “noble in purpose.” Further opinions followed in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
- Tax credits. A 2012 opinion found that tax credits are not appropriations, because they reduce the money coming into the treasury rather than paying money out of it.
The blogger did not say these grants were large. He acknowledged they were small compared with the rest of the budget. His argument was that a possible constitutional violation was worth reporting no matter how much money was involved.
The complaint about press coverage
According to the blogger, apart from this Garren Shipley piece, the Richmond press corps had either missed the nonprofit items and the constitutional question or chosen to ignore them. Shipley covered the General Assembly for the Northern Virginia Daily at the time. The blogger asked why there were no news stories or editorials on the subject. He ended with a direct appeal to Mike Shear, who then covered Richmond for The Washington Post.
That was the blogger’s view of the coverage. The post did not include any response from the reporters or newspapers it criticized.
The North Carolina cautionary tale
The blogger offered North Carolina as a cautionary tale and quoted a news report from that state. According to the report, pork barrel spending on projects in favored members’ districts had “largely disappeared” from both the House and Senate budgets that year. Two years earlier, it said, lawmakers had hidden “roughly $15 million in pork barrel initiatives in reserve funds” that sat inside three state agencies but were controlled by legislative leaders.
The report said those funds came to light after House Speaker Jim Black used $45,000 to create a state job for former Rep. Michael Decker. After Senate leaders said their budget would include little pork, the House did the same. Rep. Jim Crawford, an Oxford Democrat and one of the chief budget writers, explained it this way: “Everybody just agreed that if nobody got it, they’d be fine.”
The blogger said Virginia legislators did not, as far as he knew, hide pork in reserve funds the way North Carolina’s had. His point was that Virginia set aside large sums for organizations that did not seem to meet the constitution’s strict test for acceptable appropriations.
What the record later showed
The Decker job was the beginning of a larger case. Court records and later reporting describe it as follows:
| Person | Role in 2005-2006 | What the record shows |
|---|---|---|
| Jim Black | North Carolina House Speaker (Democrat) | Arranged funding for the $45,000-a-year job, reportedly from a reserve fund he controlled. Later went to federal prison on corruption charges. Denied paying Decker to switch parties. |
| Michael Decker | Former state representative from Forsyth County | Switched parties in 2003 and supported Black for speaker. Pleaded guilty to accepting about $38,000 in checks and $12,000 in cash. Sentenced to 48 months in prison and fined $50,000. |
| Mike Easley administration | Governor’s office and Department of Cultural Resources | Carolina Journal reported that state officials apparently broke state law in 2005 when they provided the job at Black’s request. |
How earmarks work in Congress as of November 2026
Congress has gone through the same cycle of ending and reviving earmarks that the North Carolina report described. After the 2010 elections, Republicans began an earmark moratorium in the 112th Congress (2011-2012). It was never written into House or Senate rules. Each Congress kept it going through party conference rules and committee protocols. In February 2021, House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) announced that the committee would bring earmarks back under the name Community Project Funding. The Senate’s version is called Congressionally Directed Spending. In 2023, House Republicans voted to keep the practice under their own conference rules, with some extra limits.
The rules
The program that returned in 2021 includes protections that did not exist when PorkBusters was active.
| Feature | House: Community Project Funding | Senate: Congressionally Directed Spending |
|---|---|---|
| Who requests | Individual House members | Individual senators |
| Financial interest | Members must certify that neither they nor their spouse has a financial interest in the project | Senators must certify they have no financial interest, under Senate Rule XLIV (adopted in 2007) |
| Disclosure | Requests are posted online by each member and by the committee | Requests are posted online by each senator and by the committee |
| Recipients | Limited to public and nonprofit entities since 2021 | Set by Senate Appropriations Committee guidance |
| FY2027 limits | Up to 20 requests per member. Total capped at 0.5% of discretionary spending | Number of requests and funding levels set by committee guidance |
The 2021 House rules also required the Government Accountability Office to audit a sample of funded projects and report its findings to Congress.
How a request becomes an earmark
- A House member or senator collects requests from local governments and nonprofits, usually early in the calendar year. For fiscal 2027, several offices had deadlines in March 2026.
- The lawmaker submits a limited number of requests to the Appropriations Committee and posts them publicly.
- The relevant appropriations subcommittee decides which requests to include in its bill and lists them in a disclosure table.
- An earmark becomes law only when Congress passes a full-year spending bill that includes it. Stopgap bills do not normally carry new earmarks.
The latest numbers
For fiscal 2026, CQ Roll Call reported in February 2026 that Congress had enacted nearly $15.5 billion in earmarks so far. The total would rise to nearly $16 billion if Homeland Security projects were enacted. Citizens Against Government Waste, a group that opposes earmarks, uses a different counting method. Its 2026 Congressional Pig Book listed 8,392 earmarks costing $23.7 billion. That was up from $22.7 billion in fiscal 2024, and the group said it was the fourth-highest total since its first Pig Book in 1991. Fiscal 2025 had almost no earmarks, because Congress did not pass any of the 12 regular appropriations bills that year.
For fiscal 2027, the House passed H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, by 370-48. The Senate approved it 90-6, and it was signed on September 2, 2026. It funds the government through December 11, 2026. The fiscal 2027 earmark lists will take effect only if Congress passes full-year bills instead of another extension.
What to watch next
The date that matters is December 11, 2026. Congress could pass some or all of the fiscal 2027 bills, and the earmarks listed in them, during the lame-duck session. Or it could extend the stopgap into 2027, which would leave those projects unfunded for now. If you want to see what your own members requested, check their official websites and the House and Senate Appropriations Committee pages, where the disclosure tables are posted. Questions about grants in Virginia’s state budget will come up again when the General Assembly meets in January 2027. The legal test is still Article IV, Section 16.
FAQ
Is this post about federal or state pork?
It is about state pork. The Virginia blogger wrote about grants to private nonprofits in Virginia’s 2006 state budget and compared them with North Carolina’s hidden reserve funds. It appeared under PorkBusters, a campaign mostly focused on federal earmarks in Congress.
Can Virginia’s budget fund private nonprofits?
Usually not as a direct gift. Article IV, Section 16 bars appropriations to charitable institutions the Commonwealth does not own or control, with a few narrow exceptions. Attorney general opinions say the state can still pay a nonprofit under a genuine contract for services, and the legislature can authorize localities to fund charities.
Are earmarks still banned in Congress?
No. The moratorium that began in 2011 ended in 2021, when the House brought back earmarks as Community Project Funding and the Senate as Congressionally Directed Spending. Both chambers now require public disclosure and a certification that the sponsor has no financial interest in the project.
How much does Congress spend on earmarks?
For fiscal 2026, CQ Roll Call counted nearly $15.5 billion enacted as of February 2026. Citizens Against Government Waste, which counts more broadly, reported $23.7 billion across 8,392 earmarks. Either way, earmarks make up a small share of total federal spending, which is several trillion dollars a year.
What happened to Jim Black and Michael Decker?
Both men were convicted. Decker pleaded guilty to taking about $50,000 to switch parties and back Black for speaker, and he was sentenced to 48 months in prison. Black later served time in federal prison on corruption charges but continued to deny that he paid Decker to switch parties.
Will fiscal 2027 earmarks be funded?
Only if Congress passes full-year appropriations bills that include them. The current stopgap law, H.R. 6500, runs through December 11, 2026. Stopgap extensions do not normally carry new earmarks.
Sources
- Overview of Continuing Appropriations for FY2027 (Division A of P.L. 119-103), Congressional Research Service
- Community Project Funding: House Rules and Committee Protocols, CRS Report R46722
- Fiscal Year 2026 Enacted Legislation, House Appropriations Committee
- Congressional Bill H.R. 6500 Signed into Law, The White House
- Virginia Constitution, Article IV, Section 16, Virginia Law
- Attorney General Opinion 11-144, Virginia Department of Taxation
- Earmarks flood spending bills after a year’s hiatus, CQ Roll Call
- 2026 Congressional Pig Book, Citizens Against Government Waste
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of North Carolina, April 27, 2007 press release
- Community Project Funding Requests, Rep. Jim Himes
Featured image: Martin Kraft / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (file page)
About this article
- Fact-checked before publication.
- Published · Updated
