Congressionally Directed Spending Fiscal Year 2026

As a reminder, Congressionally Directed Spending requests, also known as Community Project Funding or earmarks, are funding requests for high-impact, Connecticut-based projects that can be completed with assistance from the federal government.

The project must fit into one of the accounts listed. Further guidance on what each account entails can be found here. For-profit entities are not eligible to receive Congressionally Directed Spending.

If you have questions about your Congressionally Directed Spending request, please contact us at appropriations@blumenthal.senate.gov.

Important note on FY26: 

Several factors have made the likelihood of securing Congressionally Directed Spending for Fiscal Year 2026 more difficult than in previous years. Congress did not pass a final Fiscal Year 2025 spending bill, instead passing a Continuing Resolution (CR) in March that funds the government through the end of September at FY24 levels. All CDS awards that were tentatively included in the FY25 draft bills were cut from the CR. As a result, our offices will be resubmitting and supporting those cut projects for funding in FY26. 

Additionally, the Senate Appropriations Committee has instituted caps that severely limit the number of projects we can submit. As always, our office will do the best we can to submit as many eligible projects as we are able. However, we want to ensure all applicants are aware of the realities facing the process this year.