According to Bob Novak, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) is preparing a series of amendments that would take the massive earmarks currently attached to the appropriations bill and redirect those funds towards infrastructure repair to our federal highway and bridge systems.

Tom Coburn, who in three years as a U.S. senator often has tried to force colleagues into politically difficult decisions, plans to offer this choice when the Senate reconvenes following the August break: Do you want Pork or Infrastructure? Sen. Coburn is drafting amendments to kill earmarks to the Transportation appropriations bill, with the funds transferred to repairing rotting structures. That asks senators whether, in the wake of the I-35 bridge collapse in Minnesota, they insist on keeping pork for their districts.

Everyone involved in the corrupt earmark process is going to freak out about this proposal, primarily because it makes sense. Earmarks were once few and far between, usually used for projects that a member of congress was unable to get into that year's appropriations bill. Now they are used to secretly attach spending items to benefit the sponsoring congressional member's home district - items often unrelated to the superior bill (i.e. earmarks unrelated to defense attached to the defense bill). It's now a way for politicians to use taxpayers' money to fund their re-election campaigns.

Redirecting all earmarks to infrastructure repair, even if only for a year, makes sense especially in light of the recent bridge collapse in Minnesota. But that will deprive politicians of funds that they consider to be "their own" to spend. For that reason, Coburn's amendments will probably be killed by the Republicans, long before they could used to put the spotlight on the Democrats and their failure to reform the earmark process. I fear it will be yet another lost opportunity for the GOP.