Money & budgets
pork-barrel spending
Spending directed to a member's home district mainly for local benefit. The neutral term is congressionally directed spending; the judgment is in the label.
In full
One member's wasteful earmark is another's overdue bridge, and the word chosen usually reveals the speaker's position rather than a fact about the project. What is checkable is the process: since 2021 each request is public, named to a member, capped, and certified as carrying no financial benefit to them.
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A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.