INTERNACIONAL
Fiscal hawks seek millions for home district projects amid government funding debate
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House GOP fiscal hawks have requested tens of millions of federal dollars for projects in their home districts for fiscal year 2026, an analysis by Fox News Digital has found.
It’s common practice for congressional lawmakers to request funding for specific community initiatives for the people they represent – measures called «earmarks.» Critics of such funding have often referred to it as «pork,» however.
This coming fiscal year, beginning on Oct. 1, is no different – both Republicans and Democrats have requests totaling over a billion dollars in earmarks so far.
That includes conservatives in the House of Representatives who have been known to criticize what they describe as excessive or bloated government spending.
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House conservatives like Reps. Lauren Boebert, Clay Higgins, center, and Andy Harris have requested millions for community funding projects in their districts. (Getty Images)
House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., for instance, has been approved for more than $55 million in federal funding for projects in his district.
The figure includes $9 million for the Middle River Fire Company to make improvements and upgrades to its facilities, and $1 million for the development of a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
The majority of Harris’ requests are aimed at rural development in his district and the Army Corps of Engineers. Three earmarks were requested for clean water initiatives.
Harris told Fox News Digital when reached for comment on the funds, «These awards are certified to directly benefit taxpayers in the district—drawing from existing grant programs that are funded annually. It’s far better for elected members of Congress to designate where that money goes than to leave those decisions to unelected federal bureaucrats. There are no additional funds appropriated for Community Project Funding – they all fall within the agency’s appropriation.»
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., a self-described deficit hawk, was approved for just over $10 million so far. That includes over $4 million for Flexible Neutron Source, a research tool at the University of Tennessee, and $2 million for veterans housing in Knox County.
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House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., was approved for more than $18 million in earmarks – with the largest request being $4,200,000 for the Silicon Bayou Semiconductor Technology Center at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.
Higgins’ total sum also includes funding for Army Corps of Engineers projects, as well as rural hospital, law enforcement and clean water initiatives.
He also submitted a joint request with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., for $131,500,000 toward a levee and floodgate system, called the Morganza to the Gulf of Mexico Project, aimed at storm damage prevention.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., another member of the House Freedom Caucus, got nearly $15 million in community funding projects approved, chiefly aimed at clean water programs and highway infrastructure.
Boebert was vehemently against earmarks when she first came to Congress. Her opinion has changed since then, however, due to Republican-led changes to the process – which she explained in a 2023 op-ed in the Aspen Times.
Rep. Thomas Massie got $5 million approved for airport improvements. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
She made a similar argument to Fox News Digital when reached for this story: «I fought for real reforms to the appropriations process in 2023 to make sure my constituents’ tax dollars go to necessary infrastructure projects, not the wasteful and corrupt spending schemes that took place under Nancy Pelosi.»
«My district’s roads are crumbling, and our water keeps getting sent to California, where it’s wasted, because Colorado’s politicians won’t invest in water storage or infrastructure investments. My constituents pay federal taxes just like everyone else, and they should see their dollars benefit their communities instead of being sent to sanctuary cities like Denver,» Boebert said.
Conservative libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., also got some community funding, though only totaling $5 million approved so far. Massie’s requests so far are all focused on construction and rehabilitation for Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.
Massie told Fox News Digital of the funding, «I serve on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee because I believe the federal government has a legitimate role in transportation infrastructure, and the legislature has the constitutional authority to direct the funding of those projects.»
«In fact, I have voted in the GOP conference more than once to restore congressionally directed spending in the context of transportation infrastructure,» Massie said.
And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., chair of the subcommittee for Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE), got nearly $10 million in earmarks approved for her rural-suburban Georgia district.
Those funding requests are largely comprised of infrastructure initiatives, clean water programs, and law enforcement-related projects for Floyd County and other areas.
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While known as a fiscal hawk, it’s worth noting that the majority of Greene’s criticism of government spending is directed at foreign aid.
Greene said she was glad to be able to provide for her district when reached for comment by Fox News Digital.
«I’m proud to bring federal tax dollars back home to Northwest Georgia – where they belong. My constituents work hard, and for far too long, Washington has sent their money to fund foreign wars, foreign governments and globalist pet projects. When I first got to Congress, I opposed the earmark process because I believed it was a tool of the Swamp. But after seeing how it works today, I’ve realized that if we don’t fight to bring money back to our districts, the money goes elsewhere,» Greene said.
«I’ll never support billions for Ukraine or other endless wars, but I will absolutely fight to secure critical investments in Northwest Georgia, from water systems and sewer expansions to public safety equipment, roads and broadband.»
Greene said she was glad to be able to provide for her district. (Reuters/Jim Bourg)
The aforementioned lawmakers’ spending requests are far from an exhaustive total list across the entire House, but fiscal conservatives’ earmark proposals show just how widespread the practice is within Congress – on both sides of the aisle.
Republicans have made some changes to the process as of FY2025, however, to narrow what’s allowed.
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In an effort to block out funding requests for «woke» or socially progressive policies, GOP appropriators have barred earmarks for most nonprofit organizations.
That move likely saved hundreds of millions of dollars in annual spending, but Democrats decried it as a block on federal funding for LGBT initiatives.
Fox News Digital reached out to spokespeople for Burchett and Higgins for comment but did not receive a response.
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INTERNACIONAL
Winsome Sears blasts Virginia Dems’ surprise redistricting session as a ‘stunt’ to pull her off the trail
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Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears lambasted Virginia Democrats after they signaled a plan to suddenly call the legislature back in a last-minute special session to address potential redistricting before the election.
Virginia’s state redistricting commission is statutorily charged with crafting new congressional maps after every decennial census, but state Democrats appear poised to try to do an end-round around that process, potentially via the constitutional amendment process.
«In a desperate political stunt, Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly are calling for a special session to drag Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears off the campaign trail,» the Earle-Sears campaign said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
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As lieutenant governor, Earle-Sears is the presiding officer over the otherwise Democratic-majority state Senate.
«The same politicians who marched in ‘No Kings’ protests are now trying to crown themselves as the rulers of Virginia politics, abusing their offices to rig the calendar because they can’t win on ideas,» the campaign said.
Earle-Sears spokesperson Peyton Vogel said the activity is «what panic looks like» for a party that is out of fresh ideas and is relying on such «stunts,» and suggested Democratic challenger Abigail Spanberger – a former congresswoman – was in some way involved in the plan.
«[S]he’s leading the charge on cheap political stunts to slow down Winsome Earle-Sears’ momentum. It’s pathetic. Voters see through it. They know Winsome Earle-Sears is a Marine, a mom, and a fighter for Virginia every day — while Abigail Spanberger is a career politician using Washington-style dirty tricks to protect her power and her friends,» Vogel said.
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A Suffolk University poll released Thursday showed Earle-Sears trailing Spanberger by about eight percentage points, while her downballot-mates John Reid and Jason Miyares were either tied or just ahead of their Democratic opponents.
Democrats are hoping to expand their two-seat majority in the House of Delegates, targeting several districts in the suburbs and exurbs of Hampton Roads and Washington, D.C., where Republicans sit on a statistical knife’s edge. No state Senate seats are up until 2027. The upper chamber also has a two-seat Democratic majority.
House Speaker Don Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth, and Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon, did not respond to requests for comment. However, Surovell told the New York Times that plans to reconvene the legislature in Richmond next week are intended to counter President Donald Trump’s push to pressure Republican-led states on redistricting.
Those states, like Texas, see their efforts as blunting California Democrats’ likely-successful shoehorning of a mid-decade redistricting plan through Sacramento.
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«We are coming back to address actions by the Trump administration,» Surovell told the Times.
On the federal level, Democrats hold six of the 11 House seats in Virginia. Some of those held by Republicans are often considered «swing» seats that volley back and forth regularly – like that of Rep. Jennifer Kiggans in Cape Charles and Hampton Roads.
Loudoun County – once reliably Republican – has trended far to the left in the past decade, and there is no longer any Republican congressperson within about 50 miles of Washington.
Rep. Yevgeny «Eugene» Vindman, D-Va., twin brother of Alexander Vindman, holds a once-swing district in Prince William County and the D.C. exurbs that has been another long-term loss for the GOP.
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The Virginia State Capitol in Richmond. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
By contrast, Rep. Morgan Griffith’s, R-Va., district in the far southwestern end of Virginia is solidly Republican. The way neighboring Rep. Ben Cline’s district is drawn – hugging Interstate 81 and the Blue Ridge Mountains – also remains so.
But Cline’s district could be one targeted by Democrats’ redraw – as slicing up the slender district and the top of Republican John McGuire’s confines and affixing the pieces to the increasingly blue center of the state could create several new seats designed in Democrats’ favor.
Toying with the shapes of other districts like Vindman’s along I-95 and Republican Rep. Rob Wittman in the Northern Neck could also bear fruit for Democrats.
Democrats were the ones to primarily spearhead the original constitutional amendment in 2020 that birthed the commission they now want to circumvent, as it had been introduced by then-Sen. George Barker of Fairfax. Some Republicans were listed as co-signers for the resolution as well.
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The amendment was later approved by about two-thirds of Virginia voters, according to reports.
If they go the constitutional amendment route, passage before November’s election would count as one session, so Democrats – betting on holding or increasing their numbers in the legislature – would have to pass it once more in the 2026 session before it made the ballot after passage.
Whether Earle-Sears or Spanberger wins, the governor is constitutionally precluded from intervening in the process.
Working through the regular legislative process would, by contrast, allow a governor to intervene; with the outgoing Youngkin primed to veto their initial attempt.
Pennsylvania Republicans led by 2022 gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano enlisted the same process to circumvent then-Gov. Tom Wolf and end his onerous coronavirus lockdown orders, so the process has seen recent success.
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The Virginia amendment would not likely create a new map, but instead authorize a new process to commence redistricting outside the current system with the decennial commission.
Fox News Digital reached out to Spanberger for comment on Earle-Sears’ claim.
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Inundaciones y vientos huracanados
Transportes y rutas afectados
Un puerto cerrado en Le Havre, Francia, por la feroz tormenta Benjamin, este jueves. Foto: AFP «¿Bomba meteorológica?»
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Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump administration, Capitol Hill and more Fox News politics content. Here’s what’s happening…
–Red state university student caught on video threatening lives of Charlie Kirk supporters: ‘Watch your neck’
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NYC Mayor Adams to endorse Cuomo in race against Mamdani
New York City Mayor Eric Adams will endorse former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the city’s mayoral race as he faces off against Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.
«As spokesman for Mayor Eric Adams, I can confirm that the Mayor will endorse former Governor Andrew M. Cuomo for mayor and intends to campaign alongside him,» Adams’ spokesman, Todd Shapiro, said in a statement to Fox News. «The time and locations for their joint appearances are currently being finalized.»
Adams declined to answer questions about Cuomo at an unrelated press conference Thursday morning…READ MORE.
New York Mayor Eric Adams poses with Independent candidate former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo after Cuomo participated in the second debate for the upcoming mayoral election on Wednesday evening. (Al Bello/Getty Images)
White House
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World Stage
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Capitol Hill
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Across America
HALF IN, HALF OUT: Trump yet to endorse in VA governor’s race — but also kept Youngkin at arm’s length
Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, left; President Trump, right. (Al Drago/Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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CAMPAIGN CLASH: Social media erupts after Cuomo, Mamdani rip each other during final debate: ‘Unmasked’
‘CALL TO ACTION’: NYC rabbis sound off on «unprecedented risk» Mamdani poses as hundreds of leaders sign «call to action»
Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch accused New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani of «fanning the flames of intolerance» with two weeks until Election Day. (Shahar Azran)
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