FY 2022 and FY 2023 Congressional Earmark Data: Who Knew? HUD Budget Had 18%/$4.5 Billion of Total $24.4 BILLION in Earmarks.

By any name ("Community Projects") Congress loves their earmarks. 

Finding detailed earmark information is another story. 

Earmark reform was supposed to increase transparency by requiring publication on a members website, but finding comprehensive data has continued to be virtually impossible. And, when posted, virtually all of it is in the form of PDF files with tables listing earmarks that are difficult to convert to useable spreadsheets. 

Thankfully, the General Accounting Office has begun the process of tracking those earmarks with a new website HERE.

Last month the GAO finally posted data for FY 2023 which started 11 months earlier. To find out comprehensive data for FY 2024 (which started October 1st) it seems likely that GAO will not publish that data until September 2024. [Congress has yet to pass appropriations bills so that is another reason why FY 2024 data is not available]. 

GAO has provided the data in a variety of formats and I decided to compile my own Excel workbook that included all of the GAO FY 2022 and FY 2023 data PLUS

• A breakout of HUD earmarks for their Economic Development Initiatives program. 
• HUD guides for their earmark program, Economic Development Initiatives 
• USA spending data on HUD earmarks nationwide that includes city and county data that is missing from the GAO data. That data has totals lower than the GAO data, likely because while budgeted, funds have not yet been obligated. 

That Excel workbook i created is HERE and it opens to a listing of all worksheets, which include multiple pivot tables.   I have yet to find a similar workbook with as much earmark data in one place. 

EXAMPLES/OBSERVATIONS

Images from three worksheets pasted below show for FY 2022 and FY 2023 

• A nationwide breakout of earmarks by agency. 
• And the same breakout for Oregon.  
• AND a comparison of Oregon HUD CPD formula allocations vs HUD earmarks. 

Nationally HUD earmarks for the two years cost $4.5 BILLLON and in Oregon $80 Million. 

TOTAL earmarks were $24.4 BILLION nationally and $439 Million in Oregon. 

BOTH in the US and in Oregon HUD represented 18% of all earmark dollars. In comparison OMB budget documents indicate that HUD averaged only 3.6% of discretionary budget authority in FY 2022 and FY 2023. 

The graph in the third image shows that the $80 Million in HUD earmarks was MORE that the EVERY ONE of the HUD CPD formula allocation programs (CDBG, HOME, ESG, HOPWA, and the Housing Trust fund. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog