Jeff Flake: “Most certainly, I think across the country the taxpayers want to know what is going on. I think that they look at the…”

“Most certainly, I think across the country the taxpayers want to know what is going on. I think that they look at the process that we have now where Members will submit requests, earmark requests, but those requests are only made public if their earmark is actually part of a bill that comes to the House. Now, under this new procedure that has been announced by the majority, those earmark letters, which indicate who the earmark is to go to, won't be made public at all until it's too late in the process to actually challenge that earmark. So it means little to go through the process that we have set up if, by the time it has any effect, it's too late in the process to change. So the gentleman is correct, I think. Across the country, that's what I hear when I am out there. People want to know. They want open government. When you think about it, every second that this Chamber is in session is captured on C-SPAN, this conversation and every other conversation, whenever this body is in session. When we are in committee, every word that is said is transcribed and is captured. So we have an open process. Yet when it comes to spending money, we have a very secretive process in terms of earmarks, where, according to the majority this year, we won't know it all until it's too late to actually change it, until we have to just do one up and down, up or down vote on a bill.”