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West Virginia will lose at least $860 million for special projects with Washington putting a ban on earmarks, an effort that Republicans say will reduce the national debt.
Democrats say the earmark reduction makes good press, but the federal budget office says earmarks amount to about one-tenth of one percent of the federal budget.
West Virginia's higher education system stands to lose millions of federal dollars.
Senate Democrats have abandoned their attempts to pass an omnibus spending bill that included earmarks for West Virginia.
A database released by the non-profit Taxpayers for Common Sense says West Virginia's congressional delegation requested more than $860 million in earmarks in fiscal year 2011.
Republican congresswoman Shelly Moore Capito has "self-imposed" no earmarks for the Mountain State in 2011.
There was money set aside for flood control in the Southern coalfields, an IRS annex in Martinsburg, a veterans nursing home in Beckley, and money for mine rescue team training.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller and Representatives Alan Mollohan and Nick Rahall all requested earmarks.
Earmarks have been a important revenue source for West Virginia, driven by the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd, often called the "King of Pork."
Byrd often said it's bad pork when another state got it, saying many Republican senators outpaced him with earmark requests.
In fiscal year 2010, West Virginia received $46,567,000 in earmarked funds for its higher education system, according to data from Taxpayers for Common Sense.
That includes nearly $22.4 million to West Virginia University, $13.2 million to Marshall University and $4 million to the state Higher Education Policy Commission.
Wheeling Jesuit University received $5,300,000, Glenville State College received $956,000 and West Liberty University received $550,000.
West Virginia has been among the top 10 states receiving earmark money for colleges and universities.
Marshall University president Stephen Kopp said losing federal earmark dollars would severely damage his school's budget, and the
school would have to cut programs and services.
China is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into its college system to modernize existing facilities and build new higher learning institutions, while America is financing two wars.
Now, U.S. lawmakers are reducing funding to its higher education system.
"I hope Congress really takes a hard look at the types of projects that have been supported by federal earmarks at Marshall University," Kopp said.
Kopp said talk about earmarks inflating the national deficit is over-hyped.
He said the percentage of the nation's budget devoted to congressionally directed funding is "less than one tenth of one percent."
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