Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) is coming under fire for a home-state project. The AP reports:

Senate Republicans’ ban on earmarks – money included in a bill by a lawmaker to benefit a home-state project or interest – was short-lived.
Only three days after GOP senators and senators-elect renounced earmarks, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, the No. 2 Senate Republican, got himself a whopping $200 million to settle an Arizona Indian tribe’s water rights claim against the government.
Kyl slipped the measure into a larger bill sought by President Barack Obama and passed by the Senate on Friday to settle claims by black farmers and American Indians against the federal government. Kyl’s office insists the measure is not an earmark, and the House didn’t deem it one when it considered a version earlier this year.

Team Kyl (and the Obama administration) respond:

A spokesman for Kyl is defending his support for the “White Mountain Apache Tribe Water Rights Quantification Act of 2010,” as it is officially known, saying it has been a long-negotiated deal between federal agencies and the tribe that has the backing of President Barack Obama. “What is not accurate is to call the United States government’s settlement of a claim against it an earmark,” said Kyl spokesman Andrew Wilder. “Saying we ‘slipped’ it into the package is nonsense designed to insinuate something untoward. Kyl first introduced the settlement on behalf of the parties in 2008 and has worked to get it through ever since. But even though it passed with unanimous support Friday, some wish to play political games with it,” Wilder said
In fact, some in the Obama administration agree with Kyl.
Dan DuBray, a spokesman for the Bureau of Relocation, part of the Interior Department, says the $200 million was part of a settlement they negotiated with the tribe, and that everyone agreed it was a good idea to pair it with the black farmers’ legislation, because by law settlements such as this must be approved by Congress.
“We don’t see it as an earmark at all,” said Dan DuBray.

As David Weigel points out, Rep. Jeff Flake doesn’t seem to mind:

“You have to do these water settlements or allow the courts to simply award damages,” said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., perhaps the most anti-earmark member of Congress. “An earmark is something when an individual gets a goodie for their district outside of the regular legislative process.”