Jeff Flake

So much for all the talk by U.S. House Republicans about getting back to GOP ideology of limited spending.

The Republican Steering Committee had the chance to appoint pork-buster Jeff Flake to fill a vacant on the Appropriations Committee. Flake had promised to use the insider position to choke off earmarks.

Instead, the Steering Committee appointed Rep. Jo Bonner of Alabama, who made no such promises. Bonner, like most members of both parties, regularly writes legislation to use federal funding for pet projects in his district.

Flake’s appointment was widely supported by taxpayer watchdog groups. Yet, the talk around the Capitol was that Flake would put the Republicans at a competitive disadvantage in reforming the earmark process, because he would have gutted GOP earmarks immediately.

That’s right, Republican leaders were afraid of spending less first. That kind of thinking only makes sense in Washington, D.C.

Then after giving Bonner the appointment, members of Congress adjourned for Presidents’ Day, which for them, requires more than a week.

There must be an intersting backstory to this press release that Jeff Flake released today under the headline “Speaker Pelosi on earmarks.” I’ll try to ask him about it Friday. In the meantime, here’s the entire, unedited, text of the press release. Oh, Nancy Pelosi’s quote was in red in the e-mail version of the press release…

“I myself am personally not a supporter of earmarks.” – Speaker Nancy Pelosi, January 28, 2008 in a conference call with reporters 

“Whew, good thing!  I can’t imagine what this list would look like if Speaker Pelosi actually supported earmarks.” – Congressman Jeff Flake 

Partial List of Speaker Pelosi’s Earmarks for Fiscal Year 2008: 

• $588,000 for the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing for construction of permanent supportive housing for homeless individuals as part of the Mason Street Project in
  San Francisco, California

• $980,000 for Muni-Bus Rehabilitation in
  San Francisco, California

• $1,176,000 for the San Francisco Housing Authority for demolition, planning, design, and construction of mixed-income housing at the Hunters View Housing Project in San Francisco, California

• $490,000 for
  

  Sfgo Market Street

  Improvements in
  San Francisco, California

• $1,470,000 for South Access to
  Golden Gate
  Bridge,
  

  Doyle Drive

  in
  San Francisco, California

• $11,760,000 for the
  

  Third Street

  Light Rail Transit Project-Central in
  San Francisco, California

• $689,000 for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission for the Lower Mission District in San Francisco, California

• $1,267,000 to the San Francisco Department of Public Health in
  San Francisco, California for enhancements to the HIV/AIDS service delivery system

• $1,462,000 to the San Francisco Department of Public Health in
  San Francisco, California for mental health and substance abuse services for homeless persons in supportive housing

• $243,000 for Envision Schools in San Francisco, California for the Metropolitan Arts and Technology High School, which may include equipment

• $292,000 for the Exploratorium in
  San Francisco, California for its Bay Area Science Teacher Recruitment, Retention, and Improvement Initiative

• $243,000 for the Glide Foundation in
  San Francisco, California for substance abuse services

• $243,000 for Jumpstart for Young Children in
  San Francisco, California for an early childhood enhancement project to provide student mentors to preschool children

• $97,000 to the KIPP Foundation in San Francisco, California for curriculum development and the recruitment and professional development of school leaders, teachers, and administrators

• $243,000 to the Mission Language and Vocational School in
  San Francisco, California for a training program in health related occupations

• $438,000 for San Francisco Medical Center Outpatient Improvement Programs, Inc. in
  San Francisco, California for facilities and equipment

• $1,000,000 for the Department of Emergency Management for the City and

  County of
  San Francisco

• $282,000 to the
  San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, SPUR Urban Center

• $2,000,000 to Ardica Technologies for Advanced Wearable Microcell Power System Process Development

• $2,000,000 to BioQuiddity Inc. for Disposable Unit Dose Drug Pumps for Anesthesia & Antibiotics

• $9,300,000 for Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in
  San Francisco, California

• $2,000,000 to the Prevention Medicine Research Institute for Impact of Intensive Lifestyle Modification on Chronic Medical Conditions

• $4,000,000 to the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at the Northern California Institute for Research and Education for Neuroimaging & Neuropsychiatric Trauma in
  U.S. War-fighters

• $3,200,000 to Prosetta Corporation for Novel Viral Biowarfare Agent Identification and Treatment (NOVBAIT)

• $2,000,000 to Inter-4 for Operator Situational Awareness System – MEDEVAC

• $2,400,000 for

  Port of
  San Francisco Site Investigation and Remedial Action

• $2,000,000 to Presidio Trust for Presidio Main Post

• $2,000,000 to SA Photonics for Satellite Coherent Optical Receiver (SCORE)

• $282,000 for Back on Track, Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo & Marin Counties, California

• $1,551,000 for the San Francisco Forensics Services Crime Lab -
  San Francisco, California

• $1,034,000 for the

  San Francisco Community Justice
  Center

• $1,504,000 for Ex-Offender Reentry Services in
  San Francisco, California

• $423,000 for the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office Community Response Networks

• $314,900 for the Zero to
  

  Three Court

  Team for Maltreated Infants and Toddlers Project in
  San Francisco, California

President Bush

Republican Sen. Jon Kyl and Democrat Rep. Harry Mitchell both found aspects of President Bush’s final State of the Union speech to their liking. Here’s statements each of them issued after Bush’s speech Monday night.

From Kyl:

The president, in his final State of the Union Address, outlined an agenda that addresses some of our nation’s most pressing challenges. Most immediate is the need for legislation to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Al Qaeda still desires to carry out the same kinds of attacks against the United States and other countries that it executed on Sept. 11, 2001. We know the incredible amount of damage that can be inflicted if we do not monitor and respond to this threat. We also know that the best way to deal with al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations is to collect intelligence so that we can prevent attacks from occurring in the first place, rather than having to respond after they have occurred. That is why it is critical for Congress to ensure that under the law, the United States can engage in the kind of intelligence collection against al Qaeda that technology today allows.

Congress amended FISA in 2007 under the Protect America Act, which conformed the legal procedures to the evolving technology of intelligence collection. The PAA, however, is set to expire on Friday. The Senate has now been in session for almost two weeks since the beginning of this session, and majority leader has done very little to advance the issue. Instead, the Senate has devoted much of its time to considering unrelated legislation despite the looming deadline. I join with the president in urging the swift passage of a bill to properly and adequately update FISA.

While there were many fine initiatives laid out by the president, I want to specifically commend him for taking the lead to reform earmarks in Congressional spending bills. I don’t believe Congress has done enough to end this wasteful practice, and the president’s proposal to direct executive agencies to not fund projects that are not voted on by Congress is a good start.

From Mitchell:

I was pleased to see Sen. (Bob) Dole and (Department of Health and Human Services) Secretary (Donna) Shalala here tonight. Congress has passed a number of their recommendations to help our nation’s veterans, but there is so much more to be done.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are creating tens of thousands of new veterans, with new and demanding conditions. We have to be ready to treat them, and as we gather here tonight, we are not yet fully prepared. I recently returned from both Iraq and Afghanistan, where we looked at the transfer of medical records from the point of injury through the point of return to the United States, and I can tell you the process needs work.

I think it is wrong, at this time of war and economic uncertainty for members of Congress to raise their own pay yet again. Our sons and daughters are in harms way, we have a debt of more than $9 trillion, and families are worried about making ends meet. Americans didn’t get a pay raise last year, and I think it is wrong for members of Congress to give themselves one. I’ve introduced legislation to block this pay raise, and I’ve asked leadership to include it in the stimulus package.

I think the economy is a real concern. Unemployment rates are up in Arizona and we have record numbers of foreclosures in the Valley. We need to work in a bipartisan way to reverse this trend before it becomes a bigger problem.

I was pleased to hear the President speak about the need to secure our border. This is the federal government’s responsibility, it is not getting the job done, and Arizona is paying a hefty price as a result. More than half of all illegal U.S.-Mexico border crossings happen in Arizona. Congress increased funding for Customs and Border Protection, as well as for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and appropriated $1.2 billion for border fencing, but there is much more to do.

Mitchell represents Arizona’s 5th Congressional District, which takes in Scottsdale, Tempe, Fountain Hills, Ahwatukee Foothills and west Mesa.

Jeff Flake (Courtsey Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce/Vermillion Photography)

Rep. Jeff Flake, who grew up on a ranch in Snowflake, is duded up in blue jeans on the cover of the November issue of Impact Magazine, a publication of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. The headline: “Maverick: Arizonan Jeff Flake is a Different Voice in D.C.”

Hey, it wasn’t that long ago that another politician from Arizona had exclusive personal rights to the “Maverick” treatment. Yep, there’s a new maverick in town, pardner.

Anyway, reporter David Lucas writes, “As with most of the native Arizonans (Flake) represents, he has a streak of independence that is manifested in his voting record. On votes for fiscal policy considered beneficial to taxpayers, he has been ranked number one out of 435 members of the House of Representatives for the past three years by the National Taxpayers Union.”

Lucas also writes about Flake’s campaign against earmarks and notes that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has given Flake a 67 percent pro-business rating.

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