McConnell touts $2.6B for Kentucky in swan song federal appropriations round
With nearly all of the federal budget bills signed into law earlier this month, Kentucky has a much clearer picture on where exactly it’s getting help from Washington.
Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office reports it’s a banner year.
McConnell, long a hawk of the appropriations process, has laid claim to landing nearly $2.6 billion in projects for the state. That’s a single-year record for both the state and the senator, who has served more than 41 years, according to McConnell’s office.
The biggest single chunks of funding went to major ongoing projects like the repurposing of the Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond, which got almost $1 billion, and environmental work at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which received more than $381 million.
Lexington projects include $35 million to fund a second health research building at the University of Kentucky and $5.4 million to support the construction of a new air traffic control tower at Blue Grass Airport.
The Louisville area, McConnell’s home turf, was a particular beneficiary.
McConnell’s team lists more than $305 million in defense spending centered in the region, anchored by $130 million in submarine shipbuilding funds and more than $140 in ship-based missile defense systems. The University of Louisville, with $70 million for its Center for Bioscience, got the largest ever earmark of its kind. McConnell also secured $7 million on redevelopment for the Belvedere, a significant downtown revitalization project.
McConnell’s tune on appropriations stands in contrast to Kentucky’s junior senator, Rand Paul.
Paul is traditionally skeptical of federal funding and a warning voice on the rising national debt. The scion of America’s most prominent libertarian family, Paul has advocated for trimming federal budgets, and is not nearly as involved in seeking to bring federal dollars to the state.
Unlike every other member of Congress from Kentucky, Paul did not seek to take advantage of the Community Projects Funding request process, previously known as “earmarking.” A spokesperson for Paul’s office did not respond to a Herald-Leader inquiry on whether he sought or supported any specific funding for Kentucky projects.
McConnell, in a statement to the Herald-Leader explaining his work on appropriations, emphasized that Kentucky is a small state, and he’s worked to make sure it “punches above its weight.” The money for Kentucky projects would have flowed to populous states with large congressional delegations if not for his work, McConnell claimed.
“So I made the decision to help my state in every way possible. Others have chosen differently and that’s their decision,” McConnell wrote.
“Declining to secure federal dollars for Kentucky saves no money in the overall federal budget. It’s just that Kentucky would be left out. If I didn’t fight for every dollar for Kentucky, we would simply be transferring the power and decision-making to others in Congress or to nameless bureaucrats in federal agencies,” he added.
McConnell’s overall $2.6 billion number includes nearly $484 million in Community Projects Funding appropriations, the second-most of any member of the Senate this fiscal year, according to Roll Call, a Washington-based news outlet.
Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky’s 5th Congressional District garnered the sixth-highest number in the U.S. House, per the outlet.
McConnell is not running for reelection this year, and the three leading candidates on the Republican side — U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Lexington tech entrepreneur Nate Morris — have all kept their distance despite all having worked for him in the past.
Morris has been particularly harsh toward McConnell, focusing much of his messaging around running to defeat the longtime senator’s sprawling network. A recent poll from Morris’ team found that 71% of GOP voters had an unfavorable opinion of McConnell.
But McConnell remains popular among local elected Republicans and party leaders like Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, one of the state’s most powerful legislators.
“This state — unless you really watch and understand the politics of it and the economics — they will not understand for a few years the influence that Mitch McConnell has had on this state, whether you like him or not,” Stivers said.
He added that the state government would have had to shoulder much of the cost of the expensive Brent Spence Bridge companion project had McConnell not come to the table to help pass a massive infrastructure bill under former Democratic President Joe Biden. The $3.6 billion massive infrastructure project improves the highway connection between Ohio and Kentucky in the Cincinnati area.
In a series of press releases from McConnell’s office on Feb. 17, 23 other local leaders and executives were quoted thanking McConnell for his efforts in the appropriations process.
In Madison County, where the decommissioning of the Blue Grass Army Depot chemical weapons facilities came with news of layoffs, local officials were particularly thankful for money that will go toward reorienting the facility.
Madison County Republican Judge-Executive Reagan Taylor wrote in a statement that a $963 million investment in pivoting the facility toward “energetics,” explosives and propellants used in military munitions, will be a game changer for his growing community.
“The nearly $1 billion in investment that this legislation sets aside for Blue Grass Army Depot not only represents a powerful endorsement of its potential as a cornerstone of America’s energetics manufacturing base, but also in the talent and value of the Depot’s workforce,” Taylor said.
This appropriations cycle is something of a swan song for McConnell. The depot project, and funds going to Louisville area shipbuilding efforts via the Department of Defense’s budget bill, is fitting for his two primary priorities of the year: Kentucky investments and defense.
McConnell recently penned an opinion piece in POLITICO leaning into his defense policy, stressing the importance of American participation in strategic alliances like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization despite recent skepticism expressed by officials in the administration of President Donald Trump.
His last year in office thus far has centered around support for those alliances and securing money for Kentucky.
“Over the course of my career in the United States Senate, I have been proud to help the Commonwealth of Kentucky punch well above its weight in securing federal funding — from Pikeville to Paducah — for hundreds of important projects… As a long-time member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I have always seen it as my duty to meet with constituent groups, understand their needs, and help deliver on those needs through additional federal funds designated for Kentucky,” McConnell wrote in a statement.
Other members’ appropriations
In the wake of Trump signing the appropriations bills, most of Kentucky’s other members of Congress took the time to tout projects in their own districts.
Rogers, who has focused on appropriations in his decades-long span representing Southern and Eastern Kentucky — the longest continuously-serving member of the chamber, Rogers has the designation of “Dean of the U.S. House” — featured several projects in news releases.
Rogers listed $20 million for “new communications equipment for first responders in Southern and Eastern Kentucky,” mirroring language in an earmark request he made for the Center for Rural Development in his hometown of Somerset.
Also highlighted in releases from Rogers’ office was a $28 million appropriation as part of the ongoing Abandoned Mine Lands Economic Revitalization Program and $7.5 million for the Morehead State University Space Science Center’s Payload Operations Center.
Rep. Brett Guthrie, who represents Kentucky’s 2nd Congressional District in South Central and Western Kentucky, wrote in a news release that he worked particularly closely with McConnell’s office to get funding for improvements to the Edmonson County Water District, near Bowling Green.
Guthrie also touted several other water improvements and some projects in Fort Knox, totaling more than $76 million in Community Projects Funding.
Kentucky’s lone Democrat in Congress, Rep. Morgan McGarvey of Louisville, advertised more than $12 million in Community Projects Funding, with the biggest single hatch of funds being $1.2 million to “demolish derelict West End properties and clear the way to build affordable housing units.”
The biggest single project Barr laid claim to was $2 million in funding to the Triple Crown Business Park, a regional initiative backed by several local governments in Central Kentucky but is located in Scott County.
