Grant News

Dr. Liz Shay, Senior Grants Development Consultant

Congressionally directed spending (also known as community project funding or earmarks) are line items in the United States federal budget specifically requested by individual legislators. There was a 10-year moratorium on these appropriations, but that ran out in 2021. Proponents of congressionally directed spending argue that it creates a more transparent appropriation process and enables local jurisdictions to more directly request and receive funds for their specific needs. Others believe that congressionally directed spending is wasteful or corrupt. Regardless of how you feel about this type of funding, they are a part of the current federal funding landscape and should be considered carefully when looking for support for your project.

In this article, we will explore the fiscal year 2024 congressionally directed spending landscape. We will evaluate where the funds are going and what types of projects they are predominantly funding. We will also reflect on where we are in the fiscal year 2025 funding congressionally directed spending process.

Rules for Congressionally Directed Spending

Since its return in 2021, congressionally directed spending must follow specific rules. Individual chambers may impose additional rules on requests from their members, and rules change a bit from year to year, but in general:

• Total funding for congressionally directed spending must not exceed one percent of discretionary spending.
• For-profit entities are ineligible for congressionally directed spending.
• Requests must be submitted in writing and are for specific projects in specific locations.
• Requests must be published on the Congressmember’s website quickly after they submit the request.
• The Government Accountability Office audits a sample of the enacted congressionally directed spending and reports the findings to Congress.

Overview of Fiscal Year 2024 Congressionally Directed Spending

In total, 8080 congressionally directed spending appropriations were made in the fiscal year 2024 budget, adding up to a total of $15,749,801,025. Individual awards vary from $8000 to $425,000,000 with an average of $1,949,233 and a median of $975,000.

Figure 1: Distribution of appropriation sizes. 1st quartile: $500,000, 2nd quartile: $975,000, 3rd quartile: $1,750,000.

As seen in Figure 1 (and from the difference between the average and the median), the appropriations are very skewed. More than half of the awards made are under $1,000,000 (4088 awards), with about 2% of awards less than $100,000 (193). Less than 5% (368 awards) are over $5,000,000.

The three largest awards, which are quite significant outliers, are:

1. $425,000,000 to the Army Corps of Engineers (Civil) for South Florida Ecosystem Restoration, requested by Representative Mast (R-FL).
2. $257,423,000 to the Army Corps of Engineers (Civil) for a new Soo Lock in Sault Sainte Marie, MI, requested by Representatives Bergman (R-MI) and James (R-MI).
3. $236,800,000 to the Army Corps of Engineers (Civil) for the Chickamauga Lock on the Tennessee River in Tennessee, requested by Representative Fleischmann (R-TN).

The small awards are mainly for recreational and community programming activities, including computer classes, activities for at-risk youth, and focused law enforcement equipment efforts. These awards are spread throughout the country and were requested by a mixture of Members of Congress from both chambers.

Geographical Distribution of Fiscal Year 2024 Congressionally Directed Spending

In fiscal year 2024, congressionally directed spending was appropriated to organizations and projects in 49 of the 50 states (all except North Dakota), the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and three territories (Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, US Virgin Islands). To better understand where the funding is going, we first divided the analysis into regions of the country (taken from National Geographic Education.

 

From Figure 2, we can see that the Southeast is the predominant recipient of appropriations by amount ($5,444,013,061, 34.57%), although the number of awards they received is more equal to other regions (2023, 25.04%). A driving factor for this discrepancy is the large $425,000,000 award in Florida, described above, accounting for almost half of all monies going to projects in that state. The Northeast shows the opposite pattern, with a smaller part of the total appropriations by value ($2,857,639,756, 18.14%), but a higher number of awards (2132, 26.39%). This finding is largely driven by Pennsylvania and New Jersey, who rank relatively highly on number of awards, but do not rank as highly on amount of those awards. The other regions show similar patterns for appropriations amount and number of awards. The relatively small portion going to the Southwest makes sense since there are only four states in that region, three of whom have relatively small populations (and therefore fewer House of Representatives members).

Top 5 States by Amount		Top 5 States by Number of Awards
State	Amount	State	Number of Awards
California	$1,054,328,785	California	760
Florida	$890,563,676	New York	453
Texas	$780,469,045	Pennsylvania	385
New York	$652,786,000	Texas	329
Maine	$601,567,322	Illinois	314

Figure 3: Top 5 states by total appropriations amount and number of awards.

Unsurprisingly, as shown in Figure 3, states with high populations are more likely to have more in total congressionally directed spending appropriations. The outlier in this list of top 5 is Maine, with a high amount in appropriations but a small population (we will explore this more in the next section). The states with the highest number of appropriations seem to be driven by a mixture of population size (with larger populations, therefore, having more Members of Congress to submit requests) and seniority of their Congressional representatives (with Members of Congress who have been there for longer having more political power to get their requests approved).

 

Figure 4: Per capita total congressionally directed spending amount by state. Population numbers are taken from US Census Vintage 2023 estimated numbers. Apologies to the territories, which are not shown for clarity.

Unsurprisingly, Alaska shows up as a huge outlier in terms of per capita total appropriations ($641.68 per capita), as shown in Figure 4. This finding is largely driven by their exceptionally large area with significant needs. Maine is the other significant outlier ($431.01 per capita). This large award amount for their population is mainly driven by the requests from Senator Collins (R-ME), which we will discuss in the section below. The third highest per capita total appropriations is in Hawaii ($340.77 per capita), which has similar challenges to Alaska. Although there is less total area in Hawaii, the terrain and high amount of water create significant complications that attract the attention of Members of Congress. The final state over $200 per capita is West Virginia ($243.91 per capita). These awards are almost exclusively driven by Senators Manchin (I-WV) and Capito (R-WV), which we will discuss in the section below.

On the other hand, North Dakota had no congressionally directed spending in fiscal year 2024. None of the Members of Congress representing the state even submitted requests. Indiana is the other big outlier on the low end, with only $4.09 per capita. Similar to North Dakota, this low number is related to a lack of requests for congressionally directed spending. Only two members of the House of Representatives from the state (Representatives Carson (D-IN) and Mrvan (D-IN)) submitted requests (28 of the 30 requests were approved). The other seven House members and two Senators did not submit any requests for fiscal year 2024.

Members of Congress Distribution of Fiscal Year 2024 Congressionally Directed Spending

Individual members of Congress have varying political power, as well as varying areas that they represent. House Representatives are limited to 15 congressionally directed spending requests in each fiscal year, while Senators do not have these limitations. All of these factors come into play when we look at who had the most approval for their congressionally directed spending requests.

As can be seen in Figure 5, the total funding between the two chambers is quite similar ($7,595,723,548 for the House and $7,172,317,000 for the Senate). Just under $1 billion goes to projects that were requested by members of both chambers ($981,760, 477). Despite House Representatives being limited to 15 requests each, their higher total number of members overcomes this difference in rules, with the House having more than half of all approved requests (4356). Roughly 40% of approved requests are from the Senate (3405), with the remainder being requested from both chambers (319). The differences between the two charts show that the Senate as a whole has larger approved requests, despite the three largest outlier awards all coming from House Representative requests.

Top 5 House Members by Amount
Member	Amount
Mast (R-FL)	$436,000,000
James (R-MI)	$283,198,303
Bergman (R-MI)	$273,689,000
Fleischmann (R-TN)	$273,330,940
Crawford (R-AR)	$201,567,000

Figure 6: Top 5 House Representatives by congressionally directed spending amount. House Representatives are limited to 15 requests per fiscal year.

The top 5 House Representatives by total appropriations (Figure 6) are not a surprise, based on the largest funded projects in fiscal year 2024. Four of these representatives are accounted for with the three large outlier projects we discussed before, all of which are infrastructure projects under the Army Corps of Engineers (Civil). As a reminder, these are:

1. $425,000,000 to the Army Corps of Engineers (Civil) for South Florida Ecosystem Restoration, requested by Representative Mast (R-FL).
2. $257,423,000 to the Army Corps of Engineers (Civil) for a new Soo Lock in Sault Sainte Marie, MI, requested by Representatives Bergman (R-MI) and James (R-MI).
3. $236,800,000 to the Army Corps of Engineers (Civil) for the Chickamauga Lock on the Tennessee River in Tennessee, requested by Representative Fleischmann (R-TN).

Crawford (R-AR) also has a large infrastructure project, although his was broken into two pieces (one for construction and one for operations & maintenance, both with the Army Corps of Engineers (Civil)), for the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, totaling $187,537,000. Fleishmann (R-TN) has been in the House for several years and is on the Appropriations Committee, so he was well-positioned to advocate for this large project. Mast (R-FL) has also been in Congress for several years and could develop relationships to help advocate for this project. He had only minimal approved requests outside of this one, so this project was the priority for negotiations during the federal budget process. Bergman (R-MI) and James (R-MI) similarly had this single infrastructure award drive much of their awarded congressionally directed spending. They are both new Congressmen, but we could speculate that James’ (R-MI) highly contested election in 2022 may have helped with other Republicans advocating for this project to try to help him keep his seat in the 2024 election.

Top 5 Senate Members by Amount

Figure 7: Top 5 Senators by congressionally directed spending amount and number of awards.

Looking at the top 5 Senators by total appropriations amount (Figure 7, left column), we see mainly senior senators who are on the Appropriations Committee. The exception is King (I-ME); however, his high total amount is almost totally driven by co-requests with Collins (R-ME), who is Vice Chair of the Appropriations Committee. The majority of the funding approved for each of these Senators comes from large infrastructure projects to support their states.

Although we could not do this analysis with the House members due to their cap of 15 requests/member, we can explore the number of awards approved for different Senators. The top 5 Senators by number of awards (Figure 7, right column) is a bit more surprising. Manchin (I-WV) is anticipated on this list. He holds significant political power due to his lack of party affiliation, which allows him to get many of his requests for congressionally directed spending approved to help secure his vote. Capito (R-WV) submitted many co-requests with Manchin (I-WV), resulting in a high number of awards. Murkowski (R-AK) also has significant seniority and her role on the Appropriations Committee. Van Hollen (D-MD) and Cardin (D-MD)’s inclusion on this list seems to be largely driven by their requesting process. Ultimately, each of them submitted well over the average number of requests (they each had over 400 submissions, with the average a bit under 200). This approach seems to have been successful in getting more appropriations for projects within their jurisdictions, even if the total amount of funding may not have been very high relative to other Senators.

Project Types of Fiscal Year 2024 Congressionally Directed Spending

Individual appropriations subcommittees are involved with determining the final list of congressionally directed spending appropriations that will be included in that section of the budget. Each year, the exact set of subcommittees that will accept congressionally directed spending requests, as well as which accounts (and therefore which types of projects), are included changes. In fiscal year 2024, there were nine committees taking requests, each with varying numbers and types of accounts.

 

Figure 8: Congressionally directed spending amounts by subcommittee. Different committees had different rules about what types of requests they would accept.

As is shown in Figure 8, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies subcommittee had the highest total funding. This large percentage results from a mixture of a lot of community development projects (discussed more below) and some infrastructure projects. Those types of projects are large and require significant funds to complete the initiatives. The smallest subcommittee by awards is also not surprising, the Financial Services and General Government subcommittee. There were only a few congressionally directed spending awards made out of this subcommittee, most of which went through the National Archives & Records Administration for digitization of collections.

 

Figure 9: Congressionally directed spending number of awards by subcommittee. Different committees had different rules about what types of requests they would accept.

Exploring the data by the number of awards from each subcommittee (Figure 9) does not result in too many changes. There are a lot of awards coming out of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies. Again, there are a lot of community development projects from this subcommittee, which are a priority for congressionally directed spending efforts. The biggest shift is for Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. This subcommittee made a relatively large number of awards that are relatively small for each award. This is due to the nature of the projects from those agencies, which can often be accomplished with smaller budgets. A lot of the larger awards from this committee were in Health Resources & Services Administration, which we discuss more below. Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies also had a huge shift between the two charts, with relatively few awards that are each very large. These projects, as we see with many of the awards in Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies, are mostly infrastructure projects. In this case, the infrastructure projects have to do with water supply, which results in extremely expensive efforts due to the scale and complexity of these projects.

Top 5 Accounts by Amount		Top 5 Accounts by Number of Awards
Account	Amount	Account	Number of Awards
Community Development Fund	$3,289,034,336	Community Development Fund	2407
Highway Infrastructure Programs	$1,884,176,687	Highway Infrastructure Programs	690
Army Corps of Engineers (Civil): Construction	$1,673,409,000	State & Tribal Assistance Grants: Clean Water State Revolving Fund	546
Health Resources & Services Administration	$890,788,000	Office of Justice Programs: Byrne JAG Program	475
Army Corps of Engineers (Civil): Operation & Maintenance	$860,527,000	State & Tribal Assistance Grants: Drinking Water State Revolving Funds	461

Figure 10: Accounts by congressionally directed spending amounts and number of awards.

When we look at the accounts level (Figure 10), we can see more about which types of projects are most funded as part of congressionally directed spending. The biggest category by both the amount and number of awards is the Community Development Fund. This program is the broadest domestic development assistance program across federal funding, coming from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The most popular funding mechanism within this larger program is the Community Development Block Grant, which is a long-running and popular program for a variety of community development initiatives. Congressionally directed spending allows communities to work towards these initiatives more quickly. The visibility of the completed projects may also help their popularity with Members of Congress. The Highway Infrastructure Programs also had many awards and a large total amount of appropriations. This funding supports capital projects for roads and other transportation efforts. Similar to the Community Development Fund, this account also supports large-scale, visible efforts with immediate community impact, making it another popular focus for Members of Congress.

The two Army Corps of Engineers (Civil) accounts are unsurprisingly in the top 5 accounts by amount. These projects are large-scale, complex efforts that require significant funding to build and maintain. Most of these awards are going to projects such as dams, canals, and aquatic protection and restoration efforts. The Health Resources & Services Administration awards are mainly to health clinics and institutes of higher education for facilities and equipment to improve patient care or the training of the next generation of healthcare providers. These projects are relatively expensive because of the construction/renovation aspects. The final three accounts not discussed previously for their high number of awards (State & Tribal Assistance Grants: Clean Water State Revolving Fund, Office Justice Programs: Byrne JAG Program, and State & Tribal Assistance Grants: Drinking Water State Revolving Funds) are all long-standing programs that were often distributed through entitlement allocations before the return of congressionally directed spending. Members of Congress have chosen to request specific projects under these funds, likely to influence portions of the funds that would otherwise pass through the states, resulting in additional decision-making at the state level. These requests allow the Members of Congress to have a bit more influence on the use of funds, prioritizing projects that are ready to move quickly.

Current Status of Fiscal Year 2025 Congressionally Directed Spending

As of the time of publication, the fiscal year 2025 federal budget has not yet been passed. However, the congressionally directed spending process started even before the fiscal year 2024 budget was passed in late March 2024. Members of Congress receive requests from organizations within their jurisdiction and then make decisions about which ones to submit as a formal request.

The specific rules for each chamber of Congress vary, however, there are a few overarching rules that apply, which we discussed earlier in this article:

• Total funding for congressionally directed spending must not exceed one percent of discretionary spending.
• For-profit entities are ineligible for congressionally directed spending.
• Requests must be submitted in writing and are for specific projects in specific locations.
• Requests must be published on the Member of Congress’s website quickly after they submit the request.
• Members of Congress must certify that they and their immediate family members do not have any financial interest in the requested projects.
• The Government Accountability Office audits a sample of the enacted congressionally directed spending and reports the findings to Congress.

The Senate puts minimal extra requirements on its members. However, the House has listed some additional requirements for fiscal year 2025 for their members:

• No memorials, museums, or commemoratives can receive congressionally directed spending
• Department of Housing and Urban Development Economic Development Initiative funding can only go to governmental entities and public institutions of higher education. This category includes the Community Development Fund.
• Members can submit no more than 15 requests across all subcommittees.

Subcommittee	Senate Deadline	House Deadline
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies	May 8, 2024	May 3, 2024
Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies	May 9, 2024	May 10, 2024
Energy and Water Development	May 15, 2024	May 3, 2024
Financial Services and General Government	May 9, 2024	House members may not submit to this subcommittee for fiscal year 2025
Homeland Security	May 15, 2024	May 3, 2024
Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies	May 15, 2024	May 10, 2023
Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies	May 14, 2024	House members may not submit to this subcommittee for fiscal year 2025
Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies	May 8, 2024	May 3, 2024
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies	May 13, 2024	May 10, 2024

Figure 11: Congressionally directed spending deadline requests by subcommittee and chamber of Congress. Note: Defense; Legislative Branch; and State, Foreign Operations, & Related Programs did not accept requests for fiscal year 2025.

Deadlines for Members of Congress request submissions also varied by chamber (Figure 11). Individual Members of Congress set their deadlines for when they want submissions from organizations seeking funding to allow time to prepare their submissions by these deadlines. House members were not able to submit to the Financial Services and General Government or Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies subcommittees this year. The Defense; Legislative Branch; and State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs subcommittees did not accept requests from either chamber in fiscal year 2025.

In fiscal year 2024, approximately 1/3 of Senate requests and 90% of House requests were approved. This percentage difference is likely driven by the restriction of the House to no more than 15 requests for each member, while the Senate members could submit as many requests as they liked. In fiscal year 2025, there are 22,345 requests in the Senate (as of July 7, 2024) and 5250 requests in the House (as of June 28, 2024). These request counts include individual requests from projects that were co-requested by multiple Members of Congress. These numbers are a bit higher for both chambers this year, so it is possible that congressionally directed spending will be a bit more competitive for this fiscal year 2025 cycle, pending focus on funding amount versus number of awards by the members.

Individual subcommittees are currently developing the budgets for their divisions. Part of this process will also include tentative lists of congressionally directed spending appropriations. Changes may be made as subcommittee-proposed budgets are reviewed by the full Congress and changes are requested before approval votes.

Next Steps for Your Organization with Congressionally Directed Spending

Congressionally directed spending can be a great way to get funding for your project. This funding may move faster than applying directly through the related grant programs from the relevant federal funding agencies, although you do have to wait for the federal budget cycle to start to apply. There are a few things that your organization can do now to be ready to apply for congressionally directed spending:

1. Ensure your project is aligned with one of the subcommittees and accounts that accept congressionally directed spending requests. This exact list varies from year to year, but you can get a sense of the programs that may be relevant by exploring previous years’ congressionally directed spending guidelines. You can find the fiscal year 2025 guidance for each chamber at the following links:
   1. Senate: The Fiscal year 2025 guidance is found .
   2. House: The Fiscal year 2025 guidance is found .
2. Build relationships with your Members of Congress. If you have existing relationships with one or more Members of Congress, reach out and let them know about your organizational needs and what you are hoping to accomplish. If you are a non-profit organization, particularly if you are interested in Community Development Fund requests, you may want to cultivate your relationships with your Senators in particular in case the restrictions put on House member requests hold for fiscal year 2026. If you don’t have relationships with your Members of Congress and you aren’t sure who they are, you can identify them . Make sure to consider if a particular Congressmember is up for re-election this November!
3. Identify priorities of relevant Members of Congress. Each Member of Congress has particular focus areas of interest. Determine the alignment of your project with those priorities and have discussions with their teams about the impact of your project and why they should care. Also, consider how well-positioned they are to advocate for your project’s eventual inclusion in the federal budget. The strategy they use for selecting projects to request also varies, so consider what has been successful in the past for project types (like we explored above) as places where your organization may be the most successful.
4. Once you have identified one or more Members of Congress that you hope will request funding for your project, reach out to their offices and learn more about procedures for submitting your project to them formally. Keep in mind that their deadlines for submission to the subcommittees are usually in late April or early May, so they will need information before that from your organization.
5. Continue to refine your planned project description. Be prepared to share all the details about what you hope to do, what the impact will be, how much it will cost, and why Congress should care.

Congressionally directed spending is an opportunity for important community projects to be funded directly as line items in the federal budget. Although there are long timelines for requesting and hopefully receiving these funds, it may be more direct than trying to apply through individual grant programs from federal agencies. If your organization has a relevant project and good relationships with your Members of Congress (or can form them), congressionally directed spending can be a great opportunity to fund critical projects.