Jeff Flake: “I want to just say to the gentleman from Idaho that I appreciate working with him in this process to reform the earmark…”

“I want to just say to the gentleman from Idaho that I appreciate working with him in this process to reform the earmark process. His insights as a member of the Appropriation Committee have been valuable, and he has agreed that it is a good thing to have Members' names attached to these earmarks. When people wonder why we are seeking this process now and how we are to provide oversight, I can tell you that with 450 earmarks in this bill, not one name was attached. That is why it has been a great process here today to see some of the authors, the sponsors of the earmarks come to the floor; otherwise, we wouldn't have known, unless you can find it in a press release somewhere, that they sponsored this legislation. We are looking for sunlight here. We would like to provide oversight, but it is difficult when we don't even know. We got the report last week. How are we supposed to scrub this? Let me also say that the executive branch doesn't always spend it wisely. All you have to do is drive through the fields of Arkansas and see those trailers and realize they bungle it often. What I am saying is that we diminish our credibility as those conducting oversight when we insert stipulations like this, when we say you have got to spend money on the Punxsutawney Weather Museum in Pennsylvania, or we have to spend $6 million on wood utilization that we have been doing for almost 20 years and we never seem to get out of.…”