As the end of the fiscal year nears, Congress is considering appropriations legislation for fiscal year (FY) 2026. The House Appropriations Committee has implemented guidelines that effectively remove wasteful earmark requests from representatives. The Senate Appropriations Committee has not. Instead, the Senate appropriations bills contain numerous earmark spending requests that are directed towards wasteful projects that stand in violation of American values and priorities.
Earmarks are congressionally directed spending on specific projects or organizations within members’ districts or states.
Even when individual projects look harmless in isolation, channeling tax dollars through organizations that act against American values is inappropriate. Taxpayer dollars should not be going towards groups that fund abortions and perform gender transition surgeries on children. Such activities are wholly against the American priorities and outside the realm of appropriate government spending.
Regardless of the final fiscal shape of FY 2026 appropriations, Congress should reject these earmarks.
Below are a few examples of earmarks in the Senate bills for groups working against core American values.
1. Rady’s Rakes in Taxpayer Dollars for Children’s Gender Surgeries
Sen. Alex Padilla (D – CA) included a $2 million earmark for pediatric mental health services at Rady’s Children’s Hospital in San Diego. Rady’s has 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.
Rady’s also has been a supporter of San Diego Pride including sponsoring a Children’s Garden for minors at the San Diego Pride Festival.
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)
2. Big Handouts for Health Clinic Harming Children
Sen. Tina Smith (D – MN) has requested over $3 million dollars for Hennepin Healthcare. 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, hormone treatments, as well as referrals to surgeons and specialists for gender surgeries to 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)
3. A Helping Hand for a Children’s Gender Transition Clinic
Sen. Susan Collins (R – ME) has asked for nearly $1.6 million for the Norther 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, many of which cannot be reversed.
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)
4. Dartmouth Demands Taxpayers Fund Abortions
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D – NH) requested nearly a million dollars for the Dartmouth Health Department for their OB/GYN department. However, the Dartmouth Health Department “routinely” performs abortions up to 23 weeks and 6 days into a pregnancy. Federal tax dollars should not be going towards groups that violate the right to life of the unborn.
Earmark Details
Bill: Senate Labor Health and Human Services
Program: Health Resources
Recipient: Dartmouth Health Department
Project: $900,000 for OB/GYN funding for a perinatal substance abuse unit
Sponsor: Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D – NH)
5. Christiana Care Charges Taxpayers for Abortions
Sen. Chris Coons (D – DE) proposed an earmark of over $4 million dollars for Christiana Care Health Services. This organization offers abortions through 23 weeks. A baby’s pain receptors are developed and linked to the brain by 12 weeks, meaning that they can feel pain from the abortion well before the 23 week mark.
They list financial partnerships with the National Abortion Federation, Planned Parenthood and the Justice Fund to increase abortion access.
Earmark Details
Bill: Senate Labor Health and Human Services
Program: Health Resources
Recipient: Christiana Cares
Project: $4,008,000 for construction of an urgent care facility
Sponsor: Sen. Chris Coons (D – DE)
6. Funding for VCU Sponsors Abortion Clinic
Sen. Tim Kaine (D – VA) and Sen. Mark Warner (D – VA) included a $430,000 earmark for the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). This university has an endowment of $2.72 billion and is the second largest endowment for a public school in Virginia. VCU’s University Medical Center performs abortions through 28 weeks, accepts teenage patients seeking abortions, and offers gender transition services for adults.
Earmark Details
Bill: Senate Labor Health and Human Services
Program: Higher Education
Recipient: Virginia Commonwealth University
Project: $430,000 for work-based learning experiences
Sponsor: Sen. Tim Kaine (D – VA) and Sen. Mark Warner (D – VA
7. Earmark for Group Performing IVF Embryo Cloning
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D – NY) included a $5 million earmark for the New York Stem Cell Foundation inc. The Foundation performs research using embryonic stem cell cloning and receives some of these embryos as leftovers from IVF treatments. In their guidelines, they do not require informed consent of the embryo’s donors; rather, they suggest a lower standard of dispositional authorization that does not require full discourse of all the ways that the embryos may be used.
Additionally, they used a human egg and through cloning created an embryo from which they could harvest stem cells rather than allow it to live and grow.
Earmark Details
Bill: Senate Labor Health and Human Services
Program: Health Resources
Recipient: New York Stem Cell Foundation Inc.
Project: $5, 000,000 for a precision medicine center
Sponsor: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D – NY)
