Concerning Earmarks Remain in the Final Appropriations Minibus

The House and Senate Appropriations Committees released the conferenced legislation for the fiscal year 2026 Defense; Homeland; Labor, Health and Human Services, Education; and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bills. This would be the final minibus package to complete the FY 2026 appropriations process ahead of the continuing resolution expiring on January 30, 2026. Overall, it totals more than $55.2 billion more than the equivalent House versions of the same four bills. Unfortunately, the minibus includes millions of dollars in wasteful, concerning earmarks at a time when the national debt is nearly $38.5 trillion. Below are just some of the examples of harmful earmarks that steer taxpayer funds to left wing activists, gender transitions and abortion providers, and other wasteful projects misaligned with Americans’ priorities.

Earmarks for Left-Wing Activists

1. Schumer Provides Half a Million for Legal Aid for Immigrants

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) included $500,000 for the New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) in New York City. NICE provides legal services for aliens to assist them in cases before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Immigration Court. Earmark Details Bill: Senate Transportation, Housing & Urban Development Program: Community Development Fund Recipient: New Immigrant Community Empowerment Project: $500,000 for NICE Station – Community and Training Center Sponsor: Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY)

2. Big Handout for Corporate-Backed Socialized Housing Activists

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) included a $3 million earmark to the Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC), a Brooklyn-based local activist group, for “community facility enhancements.” The FAC promotes increased welfare spending, economic and environmental regulations to burden private sector construction, and socialized housing. The FAC participates in “community organizing” and “advocacy” on behalf of left-wing “justice” concepts related to race and environmental concerns in local development. The FAC also works for the socialization of housing by seeking to tighten New York’s economically damaging rent control rules and other housing regulations under the guise of “tenant organizing and advocacy.” Despite its socialistic policy work, the FAC receives funding from corporations such as Capital One, Citi, Con Edison, HSBC, and M&T Bank, further reducing the justification for a federal handout. Earmark Details Bill: Senate Transportation, Housing & Urban Development Program: Community Development Recipient: Fifth Avenue Committee, Brooklyn, NY Project: $3 million for Community Facility Enhancements Sponsors: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) & Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY)

Earmarks Steer Funds Towards Abortionists and Pediatric Gender Transitions

1. Rady’s Rakes in Taxpayer Dollars for Children’s Gender Surgeries

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) included a $2 million earmark for pediatric mental health services at Rady’s Children’s Hospital in San Diego. Rady’s operates a center dedicated to pediatric “gender affirming care” including gender transition surgeries for minors. They are committed to continuing to perform those surgeries even after the Trump Administration’s Executive Order “Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.” The funds used for pediatric mental health will almost certainly go towards sponsoring the gender transition of children or at least free up other funds for that effort. Earmark Details Bill: Senate Labor Health and Human Services Program: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Recipient: Rady’s Children’s Hospital, San Diego Project: $2,000,000 for pediatric mental health services Sponsor: Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA)

2. Minnesota Health Clinic Harming Children

Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) included more than $3 million dollars for Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Hennepin operates a pediatric gender and sexual health clinic that provides both mental and physical care to children, adolescents, and young adults. The clinic offers puberty blockers and hormone treatments, as well as referrals to surgeons and specialists for gender surgeries on children. Earmark Details Bill: Senate Labor Health and Human Services Program: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Recipient: Hennepin Healthcare Project: $3,002,000 for substance abuse clinic Sponsor: Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)

3. A Helping Hand for a Children’s Gender Transition Clinic

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) included nearly $1.6 million for the Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center. Northern Light operates a gender clinic specifically dedicated to “children, adolescents, and young adults.” They offer hormone therapy treatments to children for gender transitions. The Medical Center’s 2024 “Overall Caring Spirit” award was provided to Mahmuda Ahmed, MD for “her transformative work at our Pediatric Endocrinology and Gender Clinic.” Dr. Ahmed only treats infants, children, and young adults aged 18 and younger, where she helps socially and medically transition children. Earmark Details Bill: Senate Labor Health and Human Services Program: Health Resources Recipient: Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center Project: $1,599,000 for labor and delivery equipment Sponsor: Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)

Earmarks for Boondoggles

1. Schumer’s Elevator for New York City’s Elites

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) included a $1 million earmark for New York City’s Metropolitan Opera Association (Met Opera) to make elevators compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Met Opera is currently showing a version of the classic French opera Carmen that reportedly features “a wicked ICE agent abusing a tatted-up OnlyFans girl on a grey and dirty stage supposed to resemble the US southern border.” The Met Opera has an annual budget of more than $330 million and has assets of more than half a billion dollars, thanks to dozens of corporate, foundation, and individual patrons giving millions of dollars apiece, meaning it can make room in the budget to ensure its elevators are accessible to people with disabilities. Earmark Details Bill: Senate Transportation, Housing & Urban Development Program: Community Development Recipient: Metropolitan Opera Association Project: $1 million for elevator modernization Sponsor: Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY)

2. Featherbedding “Jacob’s Pillow” with Tax Dollars

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) included a $375,000 earmark for arts education to Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (Jacob’s Pillow) in Massachusetts. This follows a similar $100,000 earmark to Jacob’s Pillow in FY 2023. Jacob’s Pillow receives financial support from a slate of deep-pocketed foundations, including Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Ford Foundation, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. The group had $76 million in assets as of 2023. Earmark Details Bill: Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Program: Innovation and Improvement Recipient: Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival Project: $375,000 for arts education Sponsors: Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) & Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)

3. Pedestrian Signals and the Homeless Industrial Complex

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) wants the federal government to give California a $1.5 million earmark for pedestrian safety signals in San Francisco. That this project would be funded through Highway Infrastructure Programs is telling. Congress has allowed the Highway Trust Fund’s focus to degrade, with local responsibilities such as street crossings and sidewalks qualifying for “highway” dollars. What makes this project stand out from similar transportation earmarks is its location: the infamous Tenderloin neighborhood. Situated in one of the wealthiest urban areas in human history, the Tenderloin neighborhood is notorious as a focal point of crime, homelessness, drug use, public defecation, and other types of disorder. This is not due to neglect or a lack of taxpayer-funded resources – quite the opposite. California spends billions of dollars per year on homelessness. San Francisco’s Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) department has received a budgetary windfall in recent years. The spending is remarkably high when compared to the number of homeless individuals in San Francisco. The HSH department’s budget is roughly $80,000 per year per homeless person. This spending, however, is not addressing the problem effectively. The city government expects that only one in four homeless people entering the system will become housed. The cause of this remarkable and ineffective expense is a combination of bureaucratic overlap and a collection of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) often referred to as the Homeless Industrial Complex. The homelessness NGOs have become a political force in the city. Taxpayers and businesses in the area are pushing back against activities such as handing out drug consumption tools, which attracts addicts to distribution locations. Federal legislators should understand that paying for local responsibilities such as street infrastructure makes it easier for irresponsible governments to waste money elsewhere. Thus, while the $1.5 million Tenderloin safety signal project is not a direct subsidy for the cadres of ineffective NGOs operating in and around the neighborhood, it has the same effect. The question is not whether there should be functional pedestrian crossings in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. Instead, the question ought to be who should pay for the infrastructure. San Francisco has sufficient resources to cover the cost, yet it has inappropriately sought Sen. Padilla’s help in securing federal tax dollars instead. Earmark Details Bill: Senate Transportation, Housing & Urban Development Program: Highway Infrastructure Recipient: California Project: $1.5 million for pedestrian safety signal upgrades in Tenderloin neighborhood Sponsor: Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA)