Maryland Rep. Andy Harris has asked his fellow appropriators for more than $99 million in earmarks targeting special projects in his district, part of the more than $300 million requested by Maryland’s congressional delegation this year.

The requests by Harris, an outspoken GOP budget hawk and among the most influential people in the Republican-controlled capital, far outpaces those made by his Democratic colleagues individually.

Harris’ requests include tens of millions for municipal water and sewer projects, North East River dredging, construction of a medical center in Easton and a prefab firehouse slated for Trappe.

Maryland’s Democratic House members are asking for money for transportation improvements, equipment to train nurses, a violence prevention program and more.

But none of the earmarks receive funding unless Congress passes its spending bills later this year, a feat that remains to be seen among divided chambers and party holdouts like Harris.

The discretionary money, called community project funding, has often been derided as pork barrel, or wasteful, spending by Republicans and scapegoated for the nation’s spiking deficit.

Though they’ve had a hard time rinsing off their grease-stained reputation, these aren’t your granddaddy’s earmarks. The process underwent a makeover after a slew of bribery scandals in the early 2000s put lawmakers and lobbyists behind bars. Congress iced the program only to revive it 10 years later.

That 2021 reset added strict ethical and financial guidelines and mandated transparency. All members’ requests, including those from Harris, are published on their websites with links to disclosures attesting they’ll gain nothing from the projects.

Harris and his House Freedom Caucus colleagues have been among the loudest voices in Congress barking for deeper cuts to Medicaid spending and environmental project grants. They have stalled budget talks over deficit concerns, and Harris withheld an up or down vote on President Donald Trump’s tax bill because proposed spending cuts didn’t go far enough.

Harris’ office did not respond to request for comment.

If Congress can’t agree on spending and again passes a stop-gap bill, called a continuing resolution — like they did in March — the earmarks don’t get approved.

That would mean the after-school program in Baltimore Rep. Kweisi Mfume’s district won’t get the $205,000 they asked for. Also gone would be $5 million in upgrades to a West Baltimore MARC station, and $1,000,000 for a violence prevention program. In total, Mfume asked for $25.7 million.

Montgomery County Rep. Jamie Raskin’s district would forgo the roughly $30 million he requested. Those included $1.1 million for flood mitigation in Wheaton and $5 million to expand pedestrian and bike access to a commuter bus station.

U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey requested the second-most money among Maryland’s House delegation, at $76.9 million.

Democrats and Republicans alike have skin in the game for their constituents, not just for the big ticket items like Medicaid funding and food security programs, but for small-dollar items — at least in federal spending terms — that could mean big impacts back home.

Maryland Democrats, however, and possibly Harris, could be voting against their own earmarks if they vote down the future appropriations bills, which haven’t yet been considered in their respective committees.

District 2 Congressman Johnny Olszewski Jr. said he’s not going to vote for “painful cuts to critical infrastructure in our communities” that Republicans are seeking.

“But that does not mean that I shouldn’t champion investments that support my constituents” and sponsor earmarks, he said.

The former Baltimore County executive has typically been on the other side of the deal, asking his predecessor Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger for lawmaker-directed money.

Olszewski said some of the projects were holdovers from the previous year, such as $2 million to buy land for an I-795 exchange near Dolfield and Red Run boulevards. Another is $1 million for a veterans center in Westminster in Carroll County; $892,000 would buy medical simulators to train nursing students at McDaniel College; and $1 million for an addition to Carroll County’s youth services bureau.

Olszewski said he and his team spend countless hours in his district, which includes most of Baltimore County and portions of Carroll County and Baltimore, talking to organizers and local government leaders.

“Who better to help direct the resources of communities back to communities than the members?” he asked.

Previous earmark iterations allowing politicians to direct money back home, free from big-government red tape, came by their shady reputation honestly. It was Republicans who shut them down in 2011 after a handful of lawmakers got caught enriching themselves with free-flowing taxpayer money.

Championing the program’s rebirth — with new rules in place — was Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer.

Despite the bad rep they’ve earned from a few rotten apples, Hoyer said, earmarks can do good and build bridges between constituents and Capitol Hill.

Members best understand the financial needs of their districts, he argued, because they are the ones hearing from constituents.

The earmark overhaul set discretionary spending limits and capped the number of requests each House member can submit. Money can only go to nonprofits and local governments. Private entities are ineligible and lawmakers and their families cannot benefit from the projects.

Common uses are for flood mitigation, job training, and social programs and lab equipment for schools and research centers.

“If these aren’t done in an upright, transparent, fair way, then we’re we’re not going to be able to do them,” Hoyer said.

Senators can ask, too, and are rolling out their requests on a different timeline. They have higher limits on the number of asks and often add House members’ requests, not as duplication, but backup. If one chamber’s appropriators say no, maybe the other will say yes.

Hoyer said now that earmarks are back, he was right to fight for their rebirth.

When he travels back to a ribbon cutting for something funded by them, he said he reminds the audience that this federal investment they’re celebrating is also known by a pejorative term — pork. And these community projects are “the other white meat.”

“As long as you conclude, well, this is good for our community,” he said, “then eat the pork.”

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect the Senate does have limits on the number of requests for community project funds..