Santiago Canyon College had planned to build a water science lab for its water utility science students to help prepare them for middle-skill jobs in the water industry.
However, the Orange community college says it will be difficult to proceed without funding, which was not a part of the federal spending bill lawmakers recently approved to keep the government funded through September.
Santiago Canyon College was among dozens of institutions in Orange County affected when President Donald Trump last week signed the latest spending bill, known as a continuing resolution, to avert a partial government shutdown.
The $1 million earmarked for the college’s water science lab was part of over $68 million in congressional earmarks sought by Orange County governments and groups in fiscal year 2025.
However, these funds were excluded from the continuing resolution — a temporary spending bill that allows the government to remain open through September — because Congress didn’t approve a full-year spending plan in time due to disagreements over funding priorities.
Instead of passing a complete appropriations bill, lawmakers ultimately agreed to a stopgap measure to keep the government funded temporarily. Earmarks can only be allocated after Congress passes a final appropriations package, the last of which was approved in March 2023.
A spokesperson for Rep. Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican and chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said the move was necessary to ensure a government shutdown did not impact the country.
“This is a standard of a CR, not a political choice. It impacts all fiscal year 2025 community project funding projects — no matter the district, congressional chamber or political party,” said spokesperson Olivia Porcaro.
Projects in Orange County that sought federal funding through the earmarks process for fiscal year 2025 included renovating an old fire station, rebuilding a community center, upgrading school facilities and improving street safety.
Some of these projects included:
• $4.47 million for the city of Yorba Linda to improve circulation on Savi Ranch Parkway between Yorba Linda Boulevard and Mirage Street.
• $3 million for the city of Fullerton to revitalize Independence Park.
• $1.15 million for the county of Orange and the city of Dana Point to reduce and mitigate falling rock at the base of the Dana Point Harbor bluffs.
• $5 million for the city of Fountain Valley to build a new fire station.
Earmarks, which allow members of Congress to direct federal funds to specific projects in their districts, have been a tool for lawmakers to bring resources to their communities.
Jonathan Fansmith, senior vice president for government relations and national engagement at the American Council on Education, which tracks federal budget decisions with a particular focus on how they impact student aid, said earmarks often support local projects that might not have other funding sources.
“If they did, they would probably pursue those, right? And what you can see are things that are very specific and often with a community focus,” he said.
Fansmith added, “A lot of what earmarks do — it really allows members of Congress to direct funding in areas where a lot of communities that could benefit from these different projects being funded wouldn’t really have other streams available to them.”
For example, the city of Orange was expected to receive $1 million for improvements to one of its fire stations. Spokesperson Charlene Cheng said the earmark would have helped the city complete the project “more expeditiously.”
“Without the support, the project’s completion depends entirely on development revenue, which can fluctuate from year to year,” she said.
The city of San Clemente had also sought money for a project addressing landslides affecting the railroad near Mariposa Point.
“The funding certainly would be a huge help for the city,” said David Rebensdorf, a city spokesperson. “The city will have to find another funding mechanism. We need to remove the bridge, and then we need to make improvements at the connection point — the trailhead on both sides of the bridge.”
Without the earmark, the city will have to identify other funding sources, Rebensdorf said.
Not all agencies will feel the same level of impact. Some, like the Orange County Transportation Authority, said the timeline for their projects won’t change despite the loss of earmarked funding. OCTA was set to receive $4 million for transportation improvements on the I-5 project between I-405 and SR-55.
“As always, OCTA seeks to leverage local funding to secure all available state and federal transportation funding,” said spokesperson Eric Carpenter. “More than $158 million in state and other federal funding has already been identified, as well as more than $46 million in local funds for the first segment of the project.”
But Fansmith noted that smaller institutions seeking earmarks often have few other options for funding.
“If you are thinking about a school like a community college, or a regional public institution or a small private institution, where they may not have a large donor base, they may not be able to access capital streams that larger institutions could,” he said.
Earmarks were banned in 2011 over concerns about corruption and wasteful spending but were reinstated in 2021 with stricter transparency requirements. Under the new system, members of Congress must disclose specific details, including the purpose of the funding and its intended recipient, to prevent conflicts of interest, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Fansmith said earmarks remain popular among lawmakers because they allow them to deliver tangible benefits to their districts.
“Members of Congress are able to do things directly for their constituents, to show that their representation is benefiting them,” he said. “They can point to a fleet of new ambulances, or they can point to a new research facility, or they can point to a job center and say it was their efforts that brought this to our community. There’s a lot of incentive for lawmakers to bring them back.”
Some local agencies plan to resubmit their projects in fiscal year 2026.
“We will resubmit this project to Rep. Young Kim’s office,” Cheng said of the fire station improvements. Carpenter also said OCTA is working with Kim, R-Anaheim Hills, to continue pursuing federal funding for the I-5 project in the next federal appropriations bill.
Orange County’s House members voted along party lines on the budget deal. Kim, the county’s lone Republican in the House, voted in favor of the continuing resolution, citing concerns about the potential impact of a government shutdown.