WASHINGTON — Senate GOP lawmakers will vote Wednesday to bring back earmarks, a controversial process that allows lawmakers to request funding for local projects in Congressional budget bills.

Inhofe, a prominent user of earmarks prior to the 2010 Senate GOP ban, would welcome their return, as it would put more spending power in the hands of Congress rather than the Biden administration.

“What [Congress doesn’t] do in terms of our elected duties, it automatically goes back to the [Biden] administration,“ Inhofe said. “I would hate to put ourselves in a position where we can’t do things in our state of Oklahoma.”

The return of earmarks could allow for President Biden’s $2.2 trillion infrastructure bill to garner more Republican support, as GOP lawmakers could request funding within the bill for their local districts.

But James Lankford, the state’s junior senator, doesn’t share Inhofe’s view.

“Earmarks was one of the practices with Congress that seems like such a good idea to say, ‘Congress has the responsibility to be able to wisely spend American taxpayer dollars,’” Lankford said. “The problem is earmarks are one of the worst of the worst ways that Congress was actually spending taxpayer dollars.”

The late Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn famously referred to earmarks as a “gateway drug” to overspending. As the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill is emerging, Lankford not only holds Coburn’s seat in the Senate, but shares his ideology regarding earmarks.

Lankford said earmarks were often a misuse of funds and became a way to buy votes from legislators on bills they “normally wouldn’t vote for.”

House Democrats and Republicans voted in March to bring back earmarks, implementing new transparency rules that require members of Congress to provide evidence that their local communities support their earmarks requests, that no immediate family members have any financial interest in their projects, and placing a limit of 10 earmark requests per fiscal year, among other rules.

Rep. Kevin Hern said he voted against the earmark proposal in the House GOP secret vote due to worries of overspending by the Biden administration, citing Coburn.

“Earmarks are reminiscent of a corrupt and foul period in Congressional history. Overwhelmingly, Americans do not support earmarks,” Hern said. “As the late Senator Tom Coburn used to say, earmarks are a gateway drug to incredible spending. I fear for how the Biden administration and Speaker Pelosi might use earmarks to pass their expensive agenda.”

Rep. Markwayne Mullin voted yes in hopes of using community project funding to alleviate a $300 million critical backlog need on the Tulsa Port of Catoosa in Rogers County, which is in Mullin’s district. The Port of Catoosa is the origin point of the McClellan-Kerr Navigation System, which funnels into the Mississippi River.

In 2014, Mullin helped appropriate dollars to fund the then-$60 million critical backlog need in the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014, but the money was later reappropriated to fix a dam on the Ohio River. With the critical backlog now rising to $300 million after money has continuously been directed elsewhere over the years, Mullin hopes the return of earmarks will allow him to fund that port directly.

“It’s a very valuable asset we have. It’s about a $3 million a day impact on Oklahoma’s economy,” Mullin said. However, with such a large critical backlog need, it could go down any time.

“It’s a ticking time bomb,” Mullin said. “One of the locks [or] one of the channels are going to go down and it’s going to close the economic impacts and benefits that [it] has on Oklahoma and Arkansas.”

Inhofe also endorsed earmarking funds toward the Navigation System, calling it “Oklahoma’s best-kept secret.”

Reps. Tom Cole and Frank Lucas, the only Oklahoma House members who were around prior to the earmarks ban, did not disclose how they voted in the secret vote, but both have used earmarks in the past and spoke positively about their return.

Cole has used earmarks to fund an exit off Interstate 35 to a Chickasaw Nation casino as well as a phased array radar at the University of Oklahoma’s weather center.

“In my view, [earmarks are] a useful tool and an appropriate tool and I certainly never minded scrutiny on anything I ever did,” Cole said.

Lucas used earmarks to fund the Oklahoma City bombing memorial, as well as a control tower at Vance Air Force Base near Enid in 2010, which is named after Inhofe, the co-sponsor on the earmark.

“Were there abuses in the old system? Absolutely. But there are frailties in the legislative process in everything,” Lucas said.

Gaylord News reporter Libbey Dean contributed to this report.

Gaylord News is a reporting project of the University of Oklahoma College of Journalism and Mass Communication.