An Alaska village of 67 residents that is so remote that flying is the only way its students can get to and from school will receive $2 million for “affordable housing” projects if Congress approves an earmark requested by the state’s senior Republican federal lawmaker, Senator Lisa Murkowski.

Critics of congressional earmarking — pet projects sought by individual lawmakers for their states or congressional districts — are pointing to Murkowski’s $2 million special interest project as just one of many pieces of evidence that too many members of Congress in both political parties are still not serious about stopping irresponsible deficit spending.

“With the gross national debt now well above $37 trillion, Congress has a duty to demonstrate fiscal responsibility. Boondoggles reveal that political concerns – showering special interests and local constituencies with “free money” – still take priority over addressing the nation’s looming fiscal cliff,” contends David Ditch, senior analyst for Fiscal Policy at the Economic Policy Innovation Center think tank, in a September 16 report.

Earmarks are officially referred to in the Senate as “Congressional Directed Spending.” The Senate Appropriations Committee released a chart describing each senator’s specific earmark requests — but without specifying how much each project will cost federal taxpayers. Earmarks in the House are listed as “Community Project Funding.”

There are 13,997 individual earmarks sought by senators in 2026 spending, compared to only 4,097 requested by representatives. The House earmarks together would cost more than $8 billion, while the Senate earmarks cost totals could reach nearly $16 billion, or 1% of the $1.6 trillion in total discretionary spending for 2026. Not all requested earmarks will be funded, and both chambers of Congress must agree on a final list of approved projects.

“This is reminiscent of the infamous ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ earmark for the Gravina Island Bridge, which roiled the FY 2006 appropriations process. The bridge project attracted national attention for its high price tag and minimal utility, ultimately contributing to a moratorium on earmarks,” according to Ditch.

“While the South Naknek housing project is not as expensive as the bridge, it suffers from the same underlying flaws. Projects that direct exorbitant resources per capita to local projects without a meaningful federal interest represent a highly inappropriate use of funds, especially at a time of high deficits,” Ditch continued.

The infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” earmark was first exposed by Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who viewed earmarks as the gateway drug for members of Congress succumbing to what he called “federal spending addiction.” Coburn’s efforts resulted in Congress abandoning earmarks in 2011. But Democrats who controlled Congress in 2021 revived earmarks — but renamed them and promised greater transparency in a move that was also supported by many congressional GOPers.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is requesting a $1 earmark that would pay for upgrading the New York Metropolitan Opera Association’s elevators to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA was approved by Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990.

“To begin with, the federal government should not pay for ‘elevator modernization’ at a non-governmental organization, especially given the nation’s chronically high deficits. This is compounded by the specifics of the Met Opera’s budgetary situation. The Met Opera has an annual budget of more than $330 million, meaning it can make room in the budget to ensure its elevators are accessible to people with disabilities,” Ditch pointed out.

The Met Opera also shows total available assets of more than $511 million on its most recent financial statement. In addition, the association recently signed an agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that is thought to pay the opera $100 million for three weeks of performances annually there, according to documents cited by the EPIC report.

A third controversial earmark highlighted by Ditch is the nearly $7 million sought by Hawaii’s two Democratic senators — Marie Hirono and Brian Schatz — to build a “shared use path” in Kahuku, Hawaii, along the Kamehameha Highway.

“A ‘shared use’ path typically refers to pedestrians and bicycles. While such projects can be worthwhile for localities, the earmarked path in question would cost more than $2,500 for each of Kahuku’s residents. This highlights another pernicious aspect of earmarks: if the cost of a project is too high for local taxpayers to tolerate, a federal earmark shifts the cost to taxpayers in other places,” Ditch warned.