Hawley, Schmitt refused to ask for earmarks. Missouri got a lot less for local projects

President Joe Biden last Friday signed into law a spending package that includes more than $95.1 million for Missouri projects – improvements at state universities, upgrades for local police departments, aid for community groups.

But the total is only about half of the $189.5 million Kansas received, despite Missouri having double the population. And it’s less than a third of what the state got in similar legislation during the previous fiscal year.

The reduced funding comes after Missouri Republican Sens. Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt refuse to participate in congressionally directed spending to steer federal money back home – a process more commonly called “earmarks.”

Instead, Missouri relied on requests from just four lawmakers – Reps. Cori Bush, Emanuel Cleaver, Sam Graves and Blaine Luetkemeyer – for any proposed projects for the 2024 fiscal year, which began in October.

“Earmarking is the way the lobbyists and others get their talons into you,” Hawley said. “And a lot of times, what they want is they want their little pet projects funded. I think we ought to be about doing what’s good for the whole state, doing what’s good for the whole country.”

After months of pushing back the deadline, Congress last week approved six spending bills, which included funding for agencies like the Department of Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development and Transportation. They have until March 22 to pass the remaining bills, which cover Homeland Security, Education and Health and Human Services, among other agencies.

The bills contain funding for hundreds of specific local projects requested by lawmakers. Kansas City-area earmarks include $4.8 million to the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority for low and no-emission buses, $500,000 for revitalization efforts in historic downtown Independence and $2.5 million for upgrades at the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, among other items.

Earmarks have long been controversial — lawmakers would sometimes use the money to benefit political donors or themselves, resulting in a temporary ban between 2011 and 2021. When the process was reintroduced with more rules about transparency in 2022, some Republicans chose not to participate, saying it increased government spending and opened lawmakers to corruption.

“Senator Schmitt is dedicated to reforming a broken system in Washington and fighting to protect taxpayer dollars,” said Chris Nuelle, Schmitt’s communications director. “The United States is over $34 trillion in debt and earmarks are part of the problem. He’ll continue to be unafraid in pushing for reforms on behalf of hard-working Missourians.”

Schmitt and Hawley are among 34 Republican senators who do not request any congressionally directed funding, and only half of Missouri’s House delegation requests their version, called Community Project Funding.

But while the process is controversial, it can mean a lot to the community organizations that end up securing federal funds. Cleaver was able to get $1 million for Mother’s Refuge, a Kansas City area organization that operates a maternity home for pregnant and new moms between the ages of 12 and 21.

The money will go to help the group renovate and convert a former hotel in downtown Independence into apartments. When it’s finished, the site will include 12 apartments for mothers and their babies.

Without the money, said Mother’s Refuge executive director Angel McDonald, “...we really wouldn’t have the funds to be able to do something that’s really necessary for the moms and the babies to live in a home like you and I live in and give them that step up.”

In Kansas, Sen. Jerry Moran was able to secure more than $160 million, like money for advanced manufacturing technology and equipment at Wichita State University. Over the past few years, congressionally directed spending has helped Wichita State move up the rankings as a top research and development school, helping to bolster the university’s aerospace programs.

Moran, a Republican, said the program allows him to make sure Kansas priorities are included in the spending bill – not just projects for states with Democratic lawmakers.

“These resources are best utilized when Kansans at the local level, who know their communities, have a say in how federal dollars are used and spent rather than allowing bureaucrats in the Biden administration to make top-down decisions on spending taxpayer dollars,” Moran said in a statement.

In choosing not to participate in the program, Schmitt, who was elected in 2022, isn’t filling a funding hole left by former Sen. Roy Blunt. In his last year in office, Blunt secured more than $350 million for Missouri.

But Schmitt’s not the only new Missouri lawmaker who has chosen not to use earmarks. Reps. Mark Alford and Eric Burlison, both Republicans, also didn’t participate.

Alford replaced Rep. Vicky Hartzler, who didn’t request any funding for fiscal year 2023. But Burlison replaced Rep. Billy Long, who secured more than $60 million for his Springfield-area district.

“You’re reducing your chances of getting federal resources via this mechanism directed to your district if you, in this case your senators, choose not to pursue projects in this way,” said Molly Reynolds, a fellow at the Washington-based Brookings think tank who studies Congress.

That leaves Springfield-area groups, like Missouri State University, at a disadvantage when it comes to getting federal funds for projects. The university recently reached out to Moran’s office about potential funding for its Jordan Valley Innovation Center, which spokeswoman Andrea Mostyn said would develop more sales for products produced in Kansas.

“Missouri State University also communicates on a regular basis with the Missouri congressional delegation about our projects, funding for those projects, and the benefits to our local economies as well defense agencies,” Mostyn said.

Hawley said he wasn’t concerned that there might be less money going to Missouri projects because he doesn’t request earmarks, touting the fact that he secured more than $40 million for housing at Fort Leonard Wood in the annual National Defense Authorization Act.

While in Missouri this weekend, Hawley said he brought up eliminating earmarks on the campaign trail and each time it got resounding applause.

“I think in some ways it’s lazy legislating,” Hawley said. “It’s people who don’t actually want to do the hard work of legislating, they just want to go in and slip in a little earmark and they haven’t actually gotten anything through the legislative process.”