(The Center Square) – Hundreds of pages of earmarks are included in the compromise deal that Congressional leaders say they’ve reached to fund the federal government.
Whether the votes are there to pass it will be revealed this week.
The more than 1,000-page deal includes six appropriations bills that total $435 million and earmarks, also known as pork – a practice of allocating federal tax dollars to local spending projects often used to win votes from hesitant lawmakers. The practice had been banned but has returned with full force in recent years. For example, one earmark in the bill would allocate $1 million to renovate the William Way LGBT Community Center in Philadelphia at the request of both of Pennsylvania’s Democratic U.S. senators, Bob Casey and John Fetterman, as well as Rep. Brendan Boyle.
Equity earmarks get plenty of attention as well. The city of Norwalk in California transportation system
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