Ethics Bill Missed Opportunity (Rep. Jeff Flake)

There are holes in the ethics bill. We have seen it play out already this year. When the chairman of the Appropriations Committee certifies that a bill is earmark free when there are clearly earmarks in the bill, there is a problem. This bill will not address that. The bill is still weak, especially in dealing with what happens when earmarks get to conference. It is very difficult to remove earmarks from a conference report and the incentive is to just put more in so that you have more members with skin in the game. Those with their own earmarks are unlikely to remove others. I think we could have done much better and have missed this opportunity. We tend to blame lobbyists too much and not concede that it’s our own behavior. Whenever you can simply write checks to people in your district, groups and businesses with very little oversight you don’t have a good situation.