When Lisa Sammet sent in an earmark proposal to the office of U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., she thought it was a long shot.
“We aren’t exactly the richest, fanciest town in Vermont,” said Sammet, the director of the Jeudevine Memorial Library in Hardwick.
Ever since Sammet started at the library just over 20 years ago, she has been pushing to expand the space.
“I’ve been working to get this for all these years,” Sammet said. “Right now we aren’t wheelchair accessible. Our bathroom is down in the basement and it isn’t heated.”
Leahy’s office announced last week that the annual agriculture appropriations bill had been approved by the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, which Leahy chairs. Its approval meant that $23 million is expected to be allocated to Vermont-specific projects.
Along with the $600,000 for the library, the bill would send $543,000 to the town of St. Johnsbury to support the Three Rivers Lamoille Valley Rail Trail project, $5 million for the Vermont Land Trust Farmland Futures Fund and $120,000 to the Rupert Village Trust for the Sheldon Store restoration project, among other things.
Debra Fuller, treasurer of the Rupert Village Trust said she has very specific plans for the money. “We are restoring the old Sheldon Store building with the intention of reviving it to once again be a central part of our community,” wrote Fuller. “We are creating a space for a new cafe on the first floor and a community gathering space on the second floor. The appropriations money would aid us in installing the critical infrastructure we need to accomplish this goal.”
As for the library in Hardwick, the $600,000 would go toward building a teen and children’s room, making the library wheelchair accessible and erecting a meeting room with a kitchen that will be available for community groups to hold meetings and get-togethers.
“It was a huge shock,” Sammet said. “We are really, really, really happy.”
The library pursued the $600,000 for its expansion through earmarks, which returned this year under Leahy’s leadership as chair of the Appropriations Committee.
Earmarks allow congressional spending to be directed to specific projects requested by senators in their home states. Rather than basing funding allocation on a set of uniform criteria, senators get to advocate for organizations — big or small — in their states. For example, Leahy requested $600,000 for the Jeudevine Memorial Library as part of the annual agriculture appropriations bill.
Earmarks were banned in 2011 by then-House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. The practice has historically been controversial, raising concerns about corruption. Organizations like the conservative Heritage Foundation have argued that the practice can incentivize senators to push personal agendas and can force spending out of control.
Occasionally earmarks go wrong, such as when $223 million in federal money was earmarked for a so-called “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska pushed by that state’s Republican lawmakers in 2005.
However, proponents argue earmarks allow those who are most familiar with the needs of their state to decide where money should go, leading to better spending practices and funding for smaller, lesser-known organizations.
“It’s not about members being able to go back home and say ‘look what I did,’” Erica Chabot, Leahy’s legislative director, said in an interview on Thursday. “It’s about members being able to identify real needs, and often that is for smaller entities that don’t necessarily have the capacity to navigate the federal grant process.”
Those might include smaller nonprofits “that have very significant impacts within the communities that they operate,” Chabot said.
When Leahy reinstated earmarks, he included several guardrails to curtail possible corruption — though these restrictions already existed before the 2011 ban. Among other rules, senators may not request funding for projects in which they or their immediate family members have a financial interest, spending items must be introduced in writing and the appropriations committee must make each request publicly available online.
The 12 appropriation bills put forth by the Appropriations Committee each year account for about 1% of spending, so while this is a large amount of money, it accounts for a relatively small portion of the Senate’s total budget.
With the return of earmarks, the Vermont delegation has had the opportunity to bring money in for state and local projects. Over the past few weeks, Leahy and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., announced that several appropriations bills have been approved in committee, which include significant funding for Vermont.
Sanders has had more than $9.5 million of funding approved for projects in Vermont. In addition to Leahy’s $23 million of funding for Vermont in the agricultural appropriations bill, he secured committee approval for $15 million in energy and water and $21.5 million for military construction projects.
While all of the appropriations Leahy has announced so far have passed with bipartisan support in committee, additional steps remain: The bills must pass the full Senate before they can be considered by the House and, if passed there, require President Biden’s signature.
“Is there a possibility of some things passing and some things not? 100%,” Chabot said. “Obviously Sen. Leahy’s goal as chair of the Appropriations Committee is that they all pass.”
At a press conference Friday at Burlington International Airport, Leahy himself said passing these bills on the Senate floor is a major priority. “We have to pass these things,” he said. “If we don’t, there will be a government shutdown.”
Leahy said he feels confident that each of the bills put forward so far will make it through the Senate and that funds will ultimately reach the Vermont organizations. “Each of these bills passed in committee with bipartisan support, with votes from a majority of Republicans,” he said..
Typically the deadline for these bills to be voted on is Oct. 1, but in recent years this deadline has not been met. Organizations are expected to receive their allocated funds sometime in early 2022.
