Oklahoma lawmakers disclose wish lists that have major highway and military projects

Oklahoma members of Congress are seeking $760 million for home-state projects this year, with freshman Sen. Markwayne Mullin accounting for nearly half of the total with requests for military, health care, highway and airport funding.

The biggest project price tag is at Vance Air Force Base in Enid, where Mullin and Rep. Frank Lucas are seeking a combined $92 million to design and construct a new pilot training center.

Major highway projects in Oklahoma City and Tulsa are also on lawmakers’ wish lists. More than $80 million was requested for work on the interchange of Interstate 240 and Interstate 35 in Oklahoma City. Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Oklahoma City, also is seeking $26 million to widen Interstate 40 between the Kickapoo Turnpike and Shawnee and money for other road and airport improvements.

Mullin, Lucas, Bice and Rep. Tom Cole made official requests to the Senate and House appropriations committees. Those requests are posted on their websites. Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford and Reps. Kevin Hern, R-Tulsa, and Josh Brecheen, R-Coalgate, did not make funding requests.

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Lankford, a Republican, has criticized the practice of Congress including lawmakers’ requests — often referred to as earmarks — in spending bills.

“With over $31 trillion in federal debt, we must have adult conversations about prioritizing federal spending,” Lankford said last week. “The new day of earmarks has allowed some members to fund worthy roads and water infrastructure projects, while others have funded walking paths in wealthy neighborhoods and local snow ski jumps. “Where there is a federal nexus or priority, local entities should have the opportunity to apply for competitive federal grants and have the strong recommendation of their elected officials as they compete.”

Despite a preference for competitive grants, however, Lankford expressed frustration with the federal grant process at a hearing last week, calling it an “incredibly large, incredibly complicated issue.”

Earmarks don’t go through a competitive grant process. If they clear the appropriations committees and are included in spending bills that are approved by Congress and signed by the president, they are funded.

Lucas, R-Cheyenne, the senior member of Oklahoma’s congressional delegation, said last week that it was Congress’ duty to raise and spend money.

“I think I have a better feel for what’s important in my district than some 26-year-old at the White House (budget office),” Lucas said.

“I’m very careful — I hope it’s obvious — in the things that I work on,” Lucas said, noting that many of his requests this year were for upgrading rural water systems and widening two-lane highways.

“No matter where you live in Oklahoma, you deserve to have a road where you can pull off to the side to change a tire without being run over,” he said.

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Focus on infrastructure

Last year, Bice, Cole, Lucas and former Sen. Jim Inhofe secured more than $650 million in projects for Oklahoma. Tinker Air Force Base — which got $231 million for construction projects — and the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System in eastern Oklahoma were the big winners.

In the first two years of the new earmark process — House and Senate Democrats revived the process after a 10-year moratorium in 2021 — Mullin did not request projects for his House district.

Mullin won the race last year to succeed Inhofe, who was prolific in securing money for military construction, highway and water projects for Oklahoma, both before and after the moratorium on earmarks.

There was concern by some that Oklahoma would lose out on many millions of dollars if Mullin didn’t request projects when he got to the Senate. The freshman Republican submitted requests totaling $356 million, covering projects in most parts of the state.

Meanwhile, Republican control of the House put Cole, one of the top ranking members of the House Appropriations Committee, at the helm of the subcommittee that oversees transportation funding. Cole said 40-50% of the earmarks will go through that subcommittee.

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Cole, R-Moore, has long stressed that members’ projects are a relatively small portion of spending and that they don’t constitute extra spending; instead, they are carved out from the money made available to the Appropriations Committee.

Members can request money for military construction projects but not for other defense-related items. Some other departments, including Health and Human Services, are also off-limits for requests.

“We’ve really limited the number of accounts and pushed them towards infrastructure-related type things,” Cole said.

Bice won a coveted seat on the House Appropriations Committee this year as a sophomore, giving Oklahoma two members on the powerful panel for the first time in more than 30 years. She sits on subcommittees that control the purse strings for military construction, veterans affairs, energy and water development and the legislative branch.

Bice’s requests answered the question of which Oklahoman would take up one of Inhofe’s primary concerns — the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, through which barges carry grain, fertilizer and other goods between the Port of Catoosa near Tulsa and the Mississippi River. Bice is seeking $32 million for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for backlogged maintenance on the system.

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Here are some of the projects requested by the four Oklahoma lawmakers:

Sen. Markwayne Mullin

• Ada Community Cancer Center, $10 million

• Vance Undergraduate Pilot Training Center, planning and design, $8.4 million

• I-44 and U.S. 75, bridge construction in Tulsa, $64.428 million

• I-240 and I-35 interchange in Oklahoma City, $76.624 million

• I-40 widening in Oklahoma County to six lanes from Mile Marker 171 to 173, $26 million

• Advanced Air Mobility Landing Zones at Will Rogers World Airport, $2 million

• May Avenue bridge repair over I-44 in Oklahoma City, $2.4 million

• Runway rehabilitation at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, $6 million

• Runway widening at Wiley Post Airport in Oklahoma City, $5.2 million

Rep. Tom Cole

• F-35 Aircraft Oxygen shop at Tinker Air Force Base, planning and design, $5.8 million

• Critical access hospital in Frederick, $6 million

• New bridges at State Highway 74 and I-35 near Purcell, $25.2 million

• Max Westheimer airport improvements in Norman, $36.5 million

• Norman Water Treatment plant, $5 million

• U.S. 62 in Lawton, $12.8 million

Rep. Stephanie Bice

• Arcadia Lake water treatment plant, $5 million

• Hefner water treatment plant emergency power generation, $10 million

• F-35 Oxygen Shop at Tinker Air Force Base, $5.8 million

• I-35 frontage roads, $7.4 million

• I-40 widening road between Kickapoo Turnpike and Shawnee, $26 million

• Guthrie-Edmond airport terminal, $7.5 million

• Wiley Post runway widening, $5.2 million

• Oklahoma National Guard Readiness Center, Shawnee, $1.1 million

Rep. Frank Lucas

• Aerospace Institute for Research and Education, Oklahoma State University, $15 million

• Will Rogers World Airport Runway Improvement Project, $6 million

• Kingfisher County Highway Improvement Project, $4 million, State Highway 33 from the Logan County Line

• U.S. 56 in Cimarron County, $4 million

• State Highway 54 in Washita County, $4 million

• U.S. 183 in Harper County, $4 million

• Vance Air Force Base Undergraduate Pilot Training Center, project to combine all five flying training squadrons and other functions at Vance under one roof, $84 million

• Altus Air Force Base Main Gate Improvement Project, $22 million

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Mullin, Cole, Bice, Lucas request $760 million in Oklahoma projects