Congressman Flake: Pork Buster
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
By: Alex Budak

Waste Watcher, May 2005

      Earmarks have long been a way for members of Congress to fund ridiculous pork projects hidden under the umbrella of otherwise needed legislation.  With appropriations bills running thousands of pages in length, well-placed politicians include line-items for projects in home districts that escape the scrutiny of the full Congress.  Over the years, Citizens Against Government Waste has forged close alliances with some members of Congress to eliminate pork in the federal budget. One such crusader is Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).  
      On April 14, 2005, Rep. Flake introduced the Obligation of Funds Transparency Act of 2005 (H.R. 1642), which would require earmarks to be included in the text of spending bills, thereby allowing members of Congress to more easily eliminate wasteful or unnecessary projects before approving appropriations bills.  According to Rep. Flake, “we’d see a lot of pork projects disappear from spending bills if members were faced with the prospect of having to defend the merits of their projects on the House floor.”  Flake has picked up 15 co-sponsors in the House.  Sen.  John McCain (R-Ariz.) has promised to introduce a similar bill in the Senate. 
      The passage of such a bill would deal a huge blow to congressional wastefulness.  CAGW’s 2005 Congressional Pig Book identified 13,997 pork projects in the fiscal 2005 budget, costing taxpayers $27.3 billion.  
      The current system allows members of the Appropriations Committees to pile on earmarks after the House and the Senate have each passed their respective versions of spending bills.  The Transparency Act would require that earmarks be contained in the actual legislative language of spending bills, and not just in the committee or conference reports, making earmarks more visible and amendable before the legislation is passed.  This change will also allow greater debate on the merits (or lack thereof) of pork-barrel spending and will force sponsoring members of Congress to explain why taxpayers should pay $1.5 million for a bus stop in Anchorage, Alaska.  The bill would close a favorite loophole in the budget process.
      Congressman Flake points out that the reason that even the most wasteful and indefensible pork projects get funded is that they are tucked away in the reports that accompany bills, rather than the actual text of the bill.  The full Congress does not get to see these pork projects until weeks after the bill is passed.                                     
      Flake’s bill would hold Congress’s biggest porkers responsible for their record.  The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), CAGW’s lobbying arm, is currently lobbying the House and the Senate for passage of H.R. 1642.