Not a single dollar has flowed in as many as 3,600 congressionally directed highway projects. Billions in 'orphan earmarks' unspent

Billions of dollars in federal highway funding for thousands of projects across the country have never even been spent - turning into “orphan earmarks” caught up in red tape for years, according to a report.

In the last 20 years, states have been unable to access at least $7.5 billion in highway funding directed to them by congressional earmarks - and in some cases the sponsors have died before a single penny has been spent, USA Today found in an analysis published Tuesday night.


Even President Obama has an orphan earmark. In 2005, then-Sen. Obama secured $1 million for a highway underpass in a Chicago suburb, but the money went nowhere because the state and local governments had already started on the project and no federal earmark funds are then allowed to be used for it under the rules.

Minor errors - like a 1998 earmark for Ohio that referred “State Road 31” in Columbus (the road is called U.S. 31) - also prevent states from accessing money that Congress has set aside.

There are unspent funds in more than 7,300 congressionally directed highway projects passed since 1991, and in 3,600 of those cases not a single dollar has flowed, the paper found.

“We call them orphan earmarks,” a South Carolina transportation official said. “They don’t have a home.”

In addition to being homeless, they’re also unaccounted for. After Congress passes highway spending bills, they’re administered by the Federal Highway Administration. Because projects are run by states, the agency doesn’t keep tabs on unspent earmark dollars.

In some cases, earmarks have outlived the members of Congress who requested them.

In 1998, Rep. Herb Bateman (R-Va.) got $29 million for an interchange in Newport News. As the cost of the project rose to $110 million because of federal Transportation Department requirements, the state decided to give up on the interchange. Bateman, meanwhile, died in 2000. The Senate has blocked efforts to tweak the earmark so that it can be applied to other roads in the region.

The data used by USA Today came from public records requests granted by 44 states and the District of Columbia.