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Yes.

Roll Call, a news service that covers congressional legislation, reported in July 2023 that Republican House of Representatives members put $7.4 billion and Democratic House members $2.8 billion in earmarks in fiscal 2024 spending bills.

Republican presidential candidate and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley criticized the GOP earmarks during the Aug. 23, 2023, Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee.

Republicans hold the majority in the House, giving them control over appropriations bills.

An earmark is any congressionally directed spending or tax benefit that benefits an entity or a specific state, locality or congressional district.

The Roll Call report found Democrats requested 65% of the 4,714 earmarks included in spending bills, but that those earmarks made up less than 38% of the total dollars.

Republican Rep. Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee secured the largest amount of fiscal 2024 earmarks, $273.3 million, mostly for an Army Corps of Engineers’ Chickamauga Lock project in Chattanooga, Roll Call reported.

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Sources

Roll Call: Republicans hoover up earmarks in House spending bills

Fox News: No one is telling Americans the truth: Nikki Haley

Bipartisan Policy Center: The Power of the Purse: The 411 on Earmarks

Congressional Research Service: Lifting the Earmark Moratorium: Frequently Asked Questions

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Tom Kertscher joined Wisconsin Watch as a full-time Milwaukee-based reporter in October 2024 after starting as a freelance Fact Briefs reporter in January 2023. In addition to contributing to Wisconsin Watch’s collaboration with The Gigafact Project to combat online misinformation, he reports on Wisconsin policy, labor, energy and the rapid expansion of data centers across the state. Kertscher is a former longtime reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a contributing writer for Milwaukee Magazine and the author of two sports books, on Al McGuire and Brett Favre.