At least six GOP senators plan to violate their conference's toothless earmark ban and more than a dozen others won't commit either way, citing fears that they're relinquishing power to Democrats if they don't participate, according to a POLITICO survey of all 50 upper-chamber Republicans. Less than 30 Senate Republicans have definitively sworn off earmarks as Democrats revive the practice of congressionally directed spending this year. Ten said they were still chewing on the issue, while several didn't comment or refused to say whether they will honor the earmark prohibition that remains in place — although technically unenforceable — for the entire Senate GOP. The fact that half a dozen Republicans are willing to openly flout the ban suggests that Washington is returning to its traditional horse-trading ways after President Donald Trump’s free-spending dismissal of the nation’s $3 trillion deficit wiped away much of the tea party's influence on the GOP. Earmark abstainers, including a number of 2024 hopefuls, can claim the moral high ground by bucking a practice that's landed lawmakers in prison and that conservatives call a “gateway drug” to wasteful spending. But the GOP's most vocal earmark critics aren't quite leading the day, particularly after House Republicans ended their own ban.