How to Get a Congressional Earmark (Community Project Funding)

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How to Get a Congressional Earmark (Community Project Funding)

Short answer: To get a congressional earmark, you ask your own member of Congress to submit your project during their spring request window, and your project has to be tied to a federal authorization law, run by a qualifying nonprofit or a state, local or tribal government, and good enough to survive a 20-request-per-member limit in the House. For-profit companies are barred outright.

The FY2027 window closed in March 2026. If you want money in FY2028, the work starts now.

What a Congressional Earmark Is in 2026

A congressional earmark is direct federal funding a member of Congress secures for one named project. The House calls it Community Project Funding (CPF). The Senate calls it Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS). Same idea, two rulebooks, and the rulebooks matter more than most applicants realize.

Unlike a competitive federal grant, you are not applying to an agency. You are asking one legislator to spend a slice of a very small, very public pot on you. In the House, the total set aside for Community Project Funding across every appropriations bill cannot exceed one half of one percent of all discretionary spending, per the Appropriations Committee’s own FY2027 guidance. The Senate’s ceiling for CDS is one percent. Those two numbers are the whole game: everything else in this process is competition for a sliver.

The Numbers That Decide Whether You Get One

Three published limits shape your odds more than the quality of your paperwork.

20. For FY2027, the House Appropriations Committee capped each member at 20 Community Project Funding requests across all bills, up from 15 the prior cycle. Your project is not competing against the country. It is competing against every other request in your district for one of twenty slots.
0.5%. The House CPF total is capped at half of one percent of discretionary spending. The Senate CDS cap is one percent. If your project needs to go through both chambers, it faces both ceilings.
4. Four House subcommittees accept no Community Project Funding requests at all in FY2027: Defense, Financial Services and General Government, Legislative Branch, and National Security/Department of State. If your project only fits one of those bills, there is no CPF path this cycle, and knowing that in September saves you a year.

Who Can Actually Receive Earmark Money

The House guidance is blunt: “Project funding may not be directed to for-profit recipients.” Members may request funding only for state, local, or tribal governmental grantees and certain eligible nonprofits, as allowed under federal law and each subcommittee’s guidance.

Three more eligibility rules trip people up every year:

Federal nexus. The Committee will only fund projects tied to a federal authorization law, and the member must file a written statement describing that nexus. A worthy local project with no federal hook is not an earmark candidate, it is a state or foundation ask.
No memorials, museums, or commemoratives. Projects named for an individual or entity are ineligible. Many are eligible for competitive grants instead.
Stewardship strings. Funded projects carry the requirements of the authorized program behind them, which can include a non-federal cost share and participation in audits. The Government Accountability Office independently audits a sample of enacted projects and reports to Congress.

Everything you submit becomes public. Members must post every request online in searchable format, and the Committee publishes the project list on the day of the bill’s initial markup. Assume your request will be read by a reporter.

The FY2027 Window Has Closed. Here Is the FY2028 Calendar.

For FY2027, the House portal opened February 25, 2026, and subcommittee deadlines ran March 13 through March 27, 2026, with members required to post their requests publicly between March 27 and April 17, 2026. The Senate runs its own CDS calendar, senator by senator.

Cycles repeat with small variations, so plan the next one backward from a late-winter deadline:

August to October: confirm eligibility and the federal nexus, pick the right appropriations account, and scope the ask to a defensible number.
October to December: build the record. Letters of support from local officials, partners and affected residents are what distinguish a fundable request from a wish.
December to January: meet the staffer who handles appropriations in your member’s office, before the portal opens, not after.
January to March: the member’s own intake form opens. There is no single national application. Every office runs its own process.
After submission: the request still has to survive subcommittee vetting, markup, and the full-year process.

What a Lobbyist Can and Cannot Do

Here is the part most pages leave out. The Community Project Funding request itself is filed by your member of Congress, through the House Appropriations portal. You cannot file one directly, and neither can we. What varies is who a member’s office will talk to: many offices require the recipient entity to complete the intake form and make the contact itself, and some state plainly that they will not accept outreach from outside consultants or lobbyists. Check your own member’s published CPF guidance before anyone picks up the phone.

So what is a firm actually for? Everything around the request: identifying which appropriations account your project belongs in, reading the subcommittee guidance that changes every year, writing the federal-nexus statement so it survives Committee vetting, assembling the community-support record, and running appropriations strategy across a cycle that lasts eight months. We make yours the strongest ask on the member’s desk, and you make it.

We will also tell you when the answer is no. If your project is for-profit, has no federal nexus, or only fits one of the four subcommittees that do not take CPF, we say so in the first conversation instead of billing you for a cycle.

Why Lobbyit

Lobbyit was built for the organizations earmarks were designed to reach: nonprofits, universities, municipalities, and local entities that cannot absorb a five-figure monthly retainer. Federal representation starts at $2,500 a month, month to month, with the price published before you call.

Appropriations and earmark strategy sits inside that work, and it pairs with our federal grant writing and government grant funding support. Full tiers are on the pricing page. If you are a city, county or authority, start with our lobbying for towns and cities guide.

Take the Next Step

If you think you have an FY2028 candidate, the cheapest hour you will spend is the one where we tell you honestly whether it qualifies. Do you have a short window this week or next?

Last updated: August 4, 2026

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How to Get a Congressional Earmark (Community Project Funding)

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