California lawmakers have been touting the millions of dollars in local projects they’ve secured this month – but not Rep. Tom McClintock.

McClintock was one of three California Republicans who had no such special projects in the $1.5 trillion budget bill Congress recently passed. Each House member could get as many as 10.

The Elk Grove Republican is firmly against the practice of pursuing the specific projects, often called earmarks, in spending bills. So are many other conservative Republicans.

McClintock’s current district will still benefit from some projects, which were included in the bill by Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla.

Earmarks have been a target of conservatives for years because of controversy over projects that seemed wasteful. Critics cite the proposed 2005 allocation for the Alaska “Bridge to Nowhere,” which connected the city of Ketchikan to an island with the city’s airport and 50 residents.

Congress banned earmarks in 2011. They were resurrected last year and rebranded as “community project funding.”

SEEKING CALIFORNIA PROJECTS

Members of Congress had to disclose their requests publicly, explain why the project is needed and certify neither they nor their families had any financial stake in the projects, and each was sent to congressional committees for review.

House members could submit a maximum of 10 projects during this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, and approved requests were included in the spending bill President Joe Biden signed into law March 15. Next year, lawmakers can submit up to 15 projects.

When House members considered lifting the earmark ban last year, Republicans voted narrowly to go along.

McClintock, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-San Marcos, did not seek any earmarks.

Many conservatives and interest groups remained opposed to the practice.

“It creates a separate process for the politically connected. In reality earmarking actually hurts all other communities that lose out because that money was taken out of the normal process and directed by political muscle,” said Joshua Sewell, senior policy analyst at Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group.

McClintock, who is seeking re-election in the newly-drawn 5th congressional district, called earmarks a “monumentally bad idea.”

In a House floor speech last year, he explained that such projects “bypass the normal process in which projects compete on their merits.”

He said earmarks “harm the central tenet of federalism: that local projects should be financed by local communities, and federal expenditures reserved for the nation’s general welfare.”

PROJECTS FOR THE DISTRICT

His current congressional district will benefit, thanks to projects secured by others. Padilla, D-Calif., had 134 projects approved in the bill, including 12 in the Greater Sacramento area. McClintock’s current district includes parts of that area. Feinstein, D-Calif., also had dozens of projects included.

Among the items that would help McClintock’s current district: