WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall wanted to solve a water rights dispute in rural Kansas that pitted farmers against environmentalists and threatened the health of a cherished wildlife refuge.
The avid outdoorsman requested a $4.2 million earmark, records show, to help finance improvements that would increase the flow of water into the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge.
He did not mention another interest that stood to benefit from the project:
his own Rattlesnake Ranch, which borders the preserve.
For decades, hunters have flocked to Quivira and its surroundings, drawn by hundreds of thousands of waterfowl that descend on the area every fall. As agriculture expanded in the area, however, the water supply was taxed to irrigate more crops, diminishing the flow into the refuge.
Marshall's efforts in 2024 to secure the earmark sought to balance the needs of the refuge and farmers in his home state. But in doing so, he took action that experts said could boost his property's value and posed a conflict of interest for the Republican senator. The measure also collided with Marshall’s strong opposition to earmarks, often called pork-barrel spending, to fund lawmakers’ pet projects. Marshall has voted four times to eliminate earmarks, calling such appropriations a waste of taxpayer money and “not American.”
Though Marshall’s request to help Quivira National Wildlife Refuge was added to a bill that did not ultimately become law, the funding was approved last year through spending legislation he supported.
Under a federal plan, water will be pumped from a separate watershed, travel through a pipeline into Rattlesnake Creek, which is next to Marshall’s property, and flow into the refuge, records show.
The funding came through as Marshall was gearing up for a reelection bid this November that had once appeared assured. President Donald Trump carried Kansas by 16%, and the state has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932.
The race has tightened, so much so that Republican groups have poured millions of dollars into advertising to fend off Democrat Adam Hamilton, a former Republican who leads the nation’s largest United Methodist church.
Marshall’s office declined to make the senator available to The Associated Press for an interview and did not respond to detailed questions about his property.
“All the water for this project would go into Quivira Wildlife Refuge,” spokeswoman Payton Fuller said in a brief statement. “Rattlesnake Ranch would not benefit from it.”
She added that the project would “literally save farms” and “supply water to the refuge in drought years.”
A water rights expert and a government watchdog group have criticized the senator’s decision to seek the earmark as a conflict of interest.
Burke Griggs, a former state water rights attorney, said waterfowl hunting is “big business” in Kansas and the federal funding will help “establish a steadier water supply than (the Quivira Refuge) has had since the 1970s.”
“That will increase the value of the land,” said Griggs, a law professor at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, who has donated money to Democrats. “Think about it: If Quivira doesn’t have water, we don’t have as many ducks and waterfowl staying in that area for hunting season. That would absolutely diminish the value of the property.”
Craig Holman, a registered lobbyist for Public Citizen, a nonprofit advocacy group that seeks greater government accountability, said Marshall “should not be involved in any legislative effort that provides a direct or substantial financial benefit to himself. He should have recused himself.”
Holman noted that Senate rules ban members from seeking earmarks in which the “principal purpose” is to further their own financial interests. In this case, Holman said, he did not believe the earmark violated the rule because the project would also benefit the refuge and farmers.
Marshall’s efforts to secure the earmark represent a departure from a long-held stance.
He had railed against such appropriations, said his colleagues should have to defend their earmark requests on the Senate floor and described a Democrat-sponsored spending bill as “full of so much pork” it was “dripping with grease.”
“I’m going to do everything I can to blow up the process so that no one does earmarks,” he told reporters in 2021.
Though he sought an earmark in 2024, he voted in January to strip such funding from a spending bill.
Marshall and his family have deep ties to the region around the preserve. He at one point owned, or co-owned, more than 1,000 acres (405 hectares) near the Quivira Refuge and has described his land as a hunting “mecca.”
The properties have provided a stream of income over the years through building rentals and oil and gas leases, according to his Senate financial disclosures.
After his election to the Senate, Marshall substantially reduced his land holdings near the refuge, the records show.
What remains is Rattlesnake Ranch, which is registered as a business in Kansas and listed as a commercial property with a building available for rent, according to records. Marshall owns a 20% stake in the ranch and serves as a company director, the records show.
Fuller, the Marshall spokeswoman, said the Rattlesnake Ranch is not used for hunting waterfowl. She did not address a question about the nature of the business or the commercial use of the land, which Marshall co-owns, records show, with a group of hunting buddies and campaign donors.
Marshall, who was elected to the Senate in 2020 after two House terms, posts photos online of game he has killed. Regional news stories have highlighted the senator’s preservation efforts in the area and his hunting of sandhill cranes near the preserve. “I hunt as often as I can,” he told Lone Star Outdoor News, according to an article posted to his Senate website in 2022.
In recent years, an increasingly tense dispute between farmers and conservationists over water rights has threatened the refuge.
Agricultural expansion and drought conditions siphoned away water crucial for the waterfowl.
Water rights are governed in Kansas by state law. President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration outraged farmers in 2023 when the Fish and Wildlife Service asked Kansas to ensure the preserve got enough water, a move that would have forced farmers and other interests to reduce their use of it.
Marshall and other Kansas lawmakers were jubilant after the Biden administration backed down. The lawmakers, including Marshall, pledged to find a solution that helped the refuge in a way that would not harm farmers, which resulted in his earmark.
“As a property owner along Rattlesnake Creek for three decades,” he said in a statement issued at the time, “protecting our local agricultural communities and the environment is something I take very seriously.”
