$1 MILLION for gay BDSM parties, money for shark repellent studies and homes for starving artists: Most shocking earmarks agreed to in Congress' $460B must-pass spending bill
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13164347/earmarks-spending-bill-millions-gay-bdsm-parties-shark-repellent-study-shocking.html
Ultra-conservative Republicans are railing against the 605 pages of earmarks that will be included in a $460 billion spending package to fund six agencies of government that will come up for a vote on Wednesday.
The earmarks have already caused scandal within the Senate, where Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman's office rescinded support for a $1 million earmark for an LGBTQ center in Pennsylvania that hosts BDSM parties.
The funding caused a backlash on social media, prompting Fetterman, who was long one of the staunchest pro-LGBTQ lawmakers in the Keystone State, to have the earmark removed.
Senior appropriator Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., moved to have the funding struck from the bill on the Senate floor on Tuesday night.
Fetterman later told reporters it was his staff, not him, that moved to remove the funding.
'It wasn't my decision,' he said. 'I was not part of the process.'
Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Bob Casey also has his name on the earmark.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., tore into the process on X. 'No one voted to add these and no one gets to vote to take these out. We have gone backwards 14 years, to before the 2010 Tea Party wave. The swamp is back to buying Republican votes for the omnibus with earmarks,' he wrote. The Waadookodaading Ojibew Language Institute in Wisconsin will get $5 million courtesy of Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
New York Democrat Rep. Jamaal Bowman clinched $1.65 million to build and 'artists' living and workspace' with the Environmental Leaders of Color.
Louisiana Republicans Rep. Garrett Graves and Sen. Bill Cassidy got $1 million for sugarcane research in their state.
Another $1 million will go to 'electric vehicle infrastructure 'masterplan' in Chicago, thanks to Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
In Providence, Rhode Island, $1 million will go to a 'city-wide climate assessment.'
Rep. Greg Steube, a Republican of Florida, will get $190,000 for a 'shark repellent study' in Sarasota.
Juvenile Pacific Salmon Research in Alaska will get $4 million thanks to Sen. Lisa Murkowsi, R-Alaska.
A 50-acre business development site in Lexington, Ky., known as Legacy Business Park will get $10 million thanks to Rep. Andy Barr, R-KY.
Public housing residents in Democratic Rep. Nanette Barragan's California district will get $1 million for an electric vehicle car share thanks to her.
Alabama state route 167 will get $20 million thanks to GOP Sen. Katie Britt.
The NAACP headquarters in Baltimore will get $500,000 thanks to Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.
A boy scout camp, Camp Maluhia, will get $1 million for a new dining hall thanks to Sen. Brian Schatz.Angoon, Alaska, a town of 349 people, will get $3 million for landfill and waste management improvement, as requested by Mukowski.
Chattanooga, Tennessee will get $6.4 million to 'support' 1.3 miles of trails on the Alton Park Connector, thanks to Republican Rep. Chuck Fleischmann.
The Drummond Culinary Academy in Monterey, California will get $1 million thanks to Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren.
An opera house in Vergennes, Vermont will get $500,000 to improve accessibility, thanks to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and the under-3,000-person-town of Berlin, Vermont will get $1.6 million for pedestrian infrastructure in the town center.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was particularly successful at getting funding for projects in his state included in the bill with eight projects included - $5 million for a pedestrian overpass at Coastal Carolina University, $7 million for 'economic development' of Charleston County, $6 million for the Saluda Grade rail trail on South Carolina, $10 million for an ROTC facility at the University of South Carolina, $2 million for public land improvement and $2 million for Ramsey Grove State Park improvement, and $750,000 for waterline and fire safety improvement in Beaufort.
Republicans in the lower chamber banned earmarks with the Tea Party wave in 2011, citing abuse and corruption, and the Democrat-led Senate did so soon after under President Obama. But a decade later in 2021, both parties brought them back.