Earmarks Update

House Earmarks:  House Republican appropriators could potentially bar congressionally directed spending/earmarks from the FY24 Labor-HHS-Education and the Financial Services appropriation bills. House Republican appropriators are expected to release their earmark guidance soon and Hill sources stated that eliminating the earmarks from the LHHS bill is due to concern over projects funded in the FY23 omnibus package that included LGBTQ and transgender services.  Also, Republicans want to meet a pledge to cut more than $130 billion from current levels when they write their fiscal 2024 bills, and eliminating some of the earmarks would help to reach the funding reduction. The FY23 omnibus package contained $15.3 billion worth of earmarks, of which $2.7 billion came from the LHHS bill and $230 million from the Financial Services bill

Senate Earmarks:  The first deadline for earmark requests is for the Energy-Water appropriations bill, with requests due on March 30. Various other bills’ deadlines are due the first two weeks of April. The final deadline is for the Labor-HHS-Education bill on April 13th. The Defense, Legislative Branch and State-Foreign Operations bills are not eligible for earmarks.