Rep. Flake On Cutting Congressional Pork

Arizona Congressman Is A Fierce Opponent Of Earmarks

(CBS)  Buried in the fine print is $70 billion, give or take a billion or two. It is one subject members of Congress don’t like talking about: earmarks. The $70 billion covers just this year's crop of earmarks. Earmarks designate money for a multitude of hometown projects that may also benefit lobbyists and the industries they represent. Most of them are buried in the fine print of legislation and are seldom debated. Many say they’re one of Congress’s dirty little secrets, that a good part of that $70 billion is pork – government waste at its worst.

As correspondent Morley Safer reports, past examples include the $223 million "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska, which almost got approved, and half a million for a teapot museum in North Carolina, which did.

This story is about one congressman’s mission to end earmarks that has pitted him against the House, in particular against members of his own party.

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"Everyone bears some blame here but Republicans are going to be blamed disproportionately. And then I have to say we deserve it, because we’ve been in charge," says Rep. Jeff Flake, a conservative Republican from Arizona.

On weekends at his home outside Phoenix, you can find him on the trampoline with his kids. But back in Washington, you’ll find him on the floor of the House, trying to bounce some earmarks out of the federal budget, but with much less success.

"This process of challenging earmarks on the floor is often described as tilting at windmills, so I suppose it is only proper that we start today with an earmark for the wind demonstration project," Flake says on the floor of the House.

Rep. Flake is challenging $6 million for windmills to generate power on military bases, $500,000 for a swimming pool in Banning, Calif., $1 million to promote tourism in Kentucky, $750,000 for a new building at the Los Angeles County Fair, $1.5 million for a William Faulkner Museum in Mississippi. And he challenges a particularly mysterious item: $600,000 for the Center of End of Life Electronics in West Virginia.

It sounds like something that might have something to do with either euthanasia or capital punishment and it was a mystery to the congressman as well: "We had a hard time. We thought it was computers for seniors. It wasn’t. It was basically mining the parts that are still usable out of old computers," Rep. Flake explains.

In essence, the center would recycle parts.

As they work their way through Congress, earmarks are so shrouded in secrecy you often can’t tell who benefits from them, who sponsors them, or why.

"The vast majority of them we have no idea. Sometimes you’ll see a press release when somebody’s taking a victory lap. Some of them don’t want anyone to know ever that they got that earmark, other than the lobbyist that they got it for," Flake tells Safer.

It’s a process the Founding Fathers warned us about from the very beginning.

"Jefferson actually was very prescient about it and said it was gonna be a mad scramble to see who can waste the most money in their state," explains Leslie Paige, who studies the workings of Congress for the non-partisan group Citizens Against Government Waste. For lawmakers, she says, earmarks serve another function: you show me yours, I’ll show you mine.

"You want me to vote for your Medicare bill? What do you want for it? You know? And that actually has happened, where there’s been a lot of log rolling and horse trading to get bills through that they can’t get through any other way," she explains.

On the floor of the House, Jeff Flake has managed to smoke out the authors of a few earmarks. But as you might expect, his efforts have gotten him in trouble with just about everybody.

"Doggone it, I’m not gonna let somebody stand up here in total and complete ignorance and spout off a bunch of gobbledygook," Rep. Curt Weldon fired at his fellow Republican.

Weldon of Pennsylvania let Flake have it for questioning $4 million to help the rotorcraft industry. "Don’t stand up on the floor and make stupid allegations because you want a headline about cutting waste. This is not waste," Weldon argued.

[klwebuga]

At one point during the story, you noted that Rep. Flake was a missionary in 'Africa.' I wonder why you didn't just name the country that he was a missionary in? I am finding so many Americans that think Africa is a country! (Africa is a continent) Maybe 60 Minutes could help educate Americans by naming the actual country in a situation like this.

[skipfoto]

I'm sure that the use of "earmarks" as a way to get a vote to support the core legislation is the way business is done, but wouldn't it be great if each piece of "pork" had to stand on it's own? It would be more cumbersome but fewer of these costly items would slip through. Congress might have to work more than 100 days per year and go on less junkets!

Remember, some very good bills fail because of the junk that's attached to it. Conversely, some bad bills just make it because of the votes guarenteed by fellow congressmen who need to "bring home the bacon".

Rep. Flake's courage in the face of attacks from both sides reminds me of the late Sen. Proxmire from my own Wisconsin and his "Golden Fleece Awards".

Where do I contribute to Rep. Flake's next campaign?

[peacethinker-2009]

Bravo Jeff Flake, we need a lot more like you in the House and Senate.

[jredinger1]

Bravo CBS and 60 Minutes for airing a story about a "Statesman" interested in principles instead of playing politics. Please continue to bring stories such as this to the public's attention, even if it means repeating. I suspect most of us aren't aware of what "really" happens in Congress and how deals are orchestrated. Without shows like this, how would we know? To Congressman Jeff Flake...Please don't give up the fight...We need more leaders like you. People interested in making intelligent decisions on how to better serve the public instead of the slimy politics as usual. Once again, I went to the polls yesterday and felt I had to choose the lessor of 2 evils. It seems the candidates were more interested in mud slinging than laying out their platform, in detail, as to how they plan to improve our well being.
We need more leaders like Congressman Flake to lead the fight towards getting this country on the right course. I intend to copy this article to every elected official in my state, and indicate that this is what I expect from our leadership.

[gwen626]

There is an honest man in Washington, DC! Thank you, 60 Minutes, for introducing him to us. Is there any possibility we, the people, might pursuade him to run for President?

[billyannpa]

Not only do I support Rep. Flake but I also support and want to see more news coverage on these issues. If wasteful spending was highlighted as often as the other "headline" stories maybe it would be reduced. I believe not only the politicians are not listening to the real issues of the people in America but neither are the news reporters. If they spent as much time exposing the earmarks and reporting the details about the bills being introduced and how each of our representatives voted on them as they do on the "*** scandals" we wouldn't have politicians frivolously wasting our tax dollars. Imagine that, the news monitoring politics to keep corruption from happening instead of after it happens. That would be news! I hope Rep. Flake stands his ground and doesn't budge even if his actions don't stay in the news.

[foramerica]

See if he'd consider running for President. He is a rare breed in today's US Government. The US is $8.5 TRILLION over spent, that is nearly $30,000 for every man, women and child in the US (EVERYONE) and congress just ISN'T getting it. The bigger problem is that getting rid of the current congress won't even help. Members of congress come and go but their staffs stay. They indoctrinate the next new member and thus it continues. Even if you could get terms limits passed it won't help. You need people like Rep Flake and a grass roots movement.

[jab3739]

We need more like Rep. Jeff Flake in our goverment. It was refreshing to see someone asking questions, and at the same time disharting to see how he was ignored. I think there ought be a news program about congress / goverment. You know they use to have to make public all their trips until they changed the law. I think if our congressmen knew that the whole nation could see them on a TV show that ask tough question about earmarks,trips,lobbiest, etc they might act and do their job in a more responsible way. John Burton

[darkfyreaol]

A little thought came to me... For the sake of posterity.. It's often been mentioned that the government couldn't possibly afford 'black' projects such as the infamous 'Area 51'.. Well, there you have it. Secret projects such as that are probably buried somewhere in a mountain of earmarks..

[pakaal]

The hidden riders and this sort of 'pork' are insane. The whole process seems hidden in secrecy. Look what happened to the auditing agency in Iraq that was doing good work exposing mismanagement of federal funds over there. Tens of millions of dollars gone without any accountability on where it was spent. Where was the 'termination notice' for the agency hidden? In a military SPENDING bill! Who put it there? Congressional leaders say they don't know!

Y'all are right. The American people definitely need (and deserve) a WHOLE lot more transparency in government.