House appropriators have made it more difficult for members to secure fiscal 2025 earmarks for some social services programs in their districts, according to new guidance Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., announced Thursday.
Nonprofits are now blocked from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Economic Development Initiative grant program, which is where lawmakers of both parties turned after earmarks were banned completely from the Labor-HHS-Education bill last year.
Republicans took issue with earmarks that aided the LGBTQ community that House Democrats had sought in the Transportation-HUD bill last year, and Cole has said he wants to eliminate “political” earmarks.
