Former Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) died Tuesday at age 89, multiple reports confirmed.
Inhofe, Oklahoma’s longest serving senator from 1994 to 2023, passed away peacefully this morning surrounded by his wife, Kay, his children, other family members and former senior aides. Said Fox News.
Inhofe, a Republican heavyweight who was elected to his fifth Senate term in 2020, is due to retire in early 2023.
FILE / Rep. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) is a pilot, tour guide and storyteller. Here, he is on a flight to Bartlesville, Okla., on Oct. 14, 1994. (Chris Martin/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)
As a senator from Oklahoma, Inhofe was a strong supporter of the state’s five military installations and a vocal supporter of congressional funding, according to the Associated Press.
The Army veteran and certified pilot personally flew back and forth to Washington to secure federal funds to fund local road and bridge projects, and criticized House Republicans who in 2010 called for a one-year moratorium on such private projects.
“Vetoing the appropriations doesn’t save us a penny. It just puts us back in the bureaucracy in the budget process,” Inhofe said at the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce in August, according to an Associated Press report.
FILE/Kathleen Turner and Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) attend a press conference on child abuse hosted by ChildHeld USA in April 1994. (Maureen Keating/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)
Inhofe frequently disputes those who claim that human activity is contributing to changes in the Earth’s climate, once calling it “the greatest fraud perpetrated on the American people.”
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