Watchdog group Open the Books found that Congress’ far-left “Squad” has secured $224 million in earmark spending requests in the last two years.
The Squad consists of eight of the most progressive members of the House — Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman, both of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Cori Bush of Missouri, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Greg Casar of Texas and Summer Lee of Pennsylvania.
“Washington is addicted to spending taxpayer money. After House Republicans took a secret vote to bring back earmarks a couple of years ago, the Squad took full advantage. These democratic socialists have earmarked a stunning $220 million in the last two years of your money spent in their districts,” the organization’s founder & CEO, Adam Andrzejewski, said in a statement.
Earmarks or pork-barrel spending sets aside federal taxpayer dollars for pet projects in a lawmaker’s district or home state.
Each member of the lower chamber can request a maximum of 15 earmarks, meaning the Squad could request up to 120 pork projects in the 2024 spending package. According to the analysis, they made 108 requests.
The earmark requests from the Squad fell into three categories: clean energy, environmental justice and diversity.
The projects included a new building for the International Muslim Women’s Empowerment Project and funds for the Billion Oyster project that prohibits people from fishing or eating oysters in the Hudson River, which is in Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s district.
Another project includes funds for the San Antonio College Empowerment Center, which includes a support program for students who are undocumented in Mr. Casar’s district. Another earmark is for funding for a green tech park in Mr. Bowman’s district.
Open the Books found that the first six of the 12 bills that will fund the government in 2024 contain 6,582 earmarks worth $13.78 billion, with the projects split nearly evenly between Republicans and Democrats.
“It is immoral for Republicans and Democrats to earmark any taxpayer money when every dime of it is borrowed against the national debt and future generations of this country,” Mr. Andrzejewski said.
The extra spending was added on while Congress struggled this year to approve funding for basic government operations. Last week, the House and Senate gave final approval to a $1.2. trillion spending package that stopped a partial shutdown and completed federal spending for fiscal 2024, which ends Sept. 30.
The total approved government spending for the current fiscal year was $1.66 trillion with a projected deficit of $1.6 trillion.