Congress brought back spending earmarks. Here’s some of what Missouri got out of them
Congress passed a $1.5 trillion spending bill late Thursday night to fund the government through September. Tucked into the immense package are millions in funding for healthcare, culture and affordable housing in Kansas City.
Along with $730 billion for domestic spending on things like mental health programs, public education and pandemic preparedness, the bill includes the return of earmarks — where members can request money for specific projects in their districts.
Congress halted the practice for about a decade after corruption scandals sent politicians and lobbyists to prison. Elimination of earmarks became a rallying cry for the anti-big government Tea Party wing of the Republican Party. Congress brought them back as a way of giving lawmakers more of a stake in legislation and allowing them to bring home money to their districts.
While critics still call it “pork barrel spending,” Congressional leaders have rebranded earmarks as “congressionally directed spending” and “community project funding.”
Four members of Missouri’s Congressional delegation did not request money in the bill: Senator Josh Hawley and Representatives Vicky Hartzler, Ann Wagner and Jason Smith.
Hawley has been a particularly vocal opponent of earmarks — he joined 15 Senators last year in opposing a plan to allow them in the spending bill — and criticized the bill on Twitter Thursday night.
“Record high inflation numbers out today,” Hawley said. “Democrats on the Senate floor cheering - literally cheering - for earmarks tonight.”
It wasn’t just Democrats benefiting.
Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt made 52 requests for projects — asking for more than $400 million for Missouri. He was able to secure 48 of them, including money for the University of Missouri, the St. Louis Symphony, the Harry Truman Library and Museum and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
House members were limited to 10 requests for projects but Kansas City’s Rep. Emanuel Cleaver was able to secure funding for all of his, totaling more than $15 million. Rep. Sam Graves got funding for seven of his 10, touting $225 million to fund small caliber ammunition, which he said will save jobs for workers at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant.
Here’s some of what was funded in the Kansas City area and beyond.
Affordable Housing
Cleaver secured $3 million for the Local Initiatives Support Coalition to boost affordable housing production in low-income neighborhoods. The money will also help educate people about home ownership and assist them in minor home repairs and securing down payments.
He also snagged $1 million to demolish the former Fitzgibbon Hospital in Marshall and turn the property into 56 affordable housing units.
Healthcare
The bill contains $2.5 million for University Health to create a substance abuse treatment center in Kansas City, $2 million for the Health Care Coalition of Rural Missouri to improve services in Lexington and Buckner, $2 million so Missouri Valley college can build a new home for its nursing program and $250,000 for a hospital-based violence intervention program that serves victims of violence and their families.
Blunt was also able to acquire funding for Children’s Mercy Hospital to boost school-based telemedicine and for MRI Global to modernize its facilities at Kimball Laboratories.
Infrastructure
Cleaver got $2.8 million for the MLK Park Pedestrian Bridge over Brush Creek to connect the North and South banks of the creek and $147,000 for field protection projects in Saline County so there will be potable water when there’s flooding. Graves and Blunt received $100,000 for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to address flooding on the Missouri River in Holt County
He also got $200,000 to renovate the Raytown Chamber of Commerce building to make it more accessible to people with disabilities.
Graves got $500,000 for Oats Inc. to replace the high-mileage vehicles used to transport senior citizens, people with disabilities and rural Missourians. He also secured $50,000 for the Second Harvest Community Food Bank to buy refrigerated vans to transport food.
Culture
The Harry Truman Library and Museum got $11.5 million to transform its grounds into a national heritage site.
The St. Louis Symphony’s music education program also received money, as did a project at the State Historical Society of Missouri to improve researchers’ access to the papers of prominent members of the Missouri Congressional delegation.
The Mattie Rhodes Cultural Center on the Westside got $1.2 million to help fund a new building that they say will allow them to bring both their community arts program and social services into a single space from a request by Cleaver.
Blunt also got his name on two buildings: the geospatial learning center at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in St. Louis will now be called the Senator Roy Blunt Geospatial Learning Center and the Center for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Building at the National Institutes of Health will be called the Roy Blunt Center for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Research Building.
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 5:22 PM.