Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who for years has waged a crusade against wasteful spending, celebrated an early personal victory of sorts Wednesday night and congratulated Democrats for what he viewed as a change of course on earmark policy.
House Republican and Democratic leaders met in an attempt to broker a deal to move forward with the Homeland Security spending bill, which Republicans had stymied with parliamentary maneuvers for the last two days.
{mosads}Early this week, Republicans had declared war on the appropriations process and were holding up the homeland security measure as a way to force Democrats to reverse a decision to wait to disclose earmarks in all spending measures until House and Senate conferences on the bills.
As of 10 p.m. Wednesday night, Republicans were still refusing to sign off on a proposed deal brokered between GOP and Democratic leaders.
Democrats offered to include earmarks in future bills when they come to the floor if Republicans allow the homeland security and military construction spending bills to proceed in their current form this week, according to a Democratic aide. The deal would also allow a point of order on additional projects added by the Senate during the conference process, the aide indicated.
On its face, the change would allow members to challenge and potentially strike earmarks included in future bills by offering amendments to the House measures on the floor, but that issue remained unclear as of press time.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) previously threatened to keep members in session this weekend if that is what it took to make progress on the appropriations bills.
As of late Wednesday, Republicans were still not 100 percent satisfied.
“The Democrats have made significant concessions, but there is no deal,” Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), said in a statement.
Smith indicated that Democrats still needed to ensure that the new policy would pass muster with all Republicans.
“It’s clear the unified Republican effort to expose the Democrats’ slush funds for secret earmarks is having an impact,” Smith continued. “Our members will not sign-off on a deal until they’re certain it provides transparency and accountability consistent with the reforms Republicans enacted last year.”
Democrats expressed optimism that Republicans would end the delaying tactics and allow the homeland security and military construction spending bills to move forward on the House floor. But they continued to hammer Republicans for “obstructing passage” of the measures, which include “improvements in border, port and airline security, and the largest increase in veterans’ health care in the 77-year history of the Veterans Affairs [department].”
They pledged to fulfill a promise to bring greater openness and accountability to the House, noting that they want to proceed under open rules that allow amendments to be offered and with full disclosure of earmarks.
“On our first day of the New Direction Congress, we implemented reforms to end the growth in secret earmarks. We will fulfill our pledge to the American people who demanded greater openness and accountability,” Brendan Daly, spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a written statement. “Our New Direction reforms have ended a dysfunctional appropriations process tarred by the largest increase in earmarks in American history and numerous scandals.”
Flake, the fiercest earmark critic in the House, didn’t wait for an official handshake sealing the deal.
“I’m pleased that the Democrats have come around on the issue, however begrudgingly,” Flake said in a written statement sent out Wednesday night.
Flake also said he believes Democrats have ceded to Republican demands that bills fall under earmark rules Republicans passed late last year. The deal, he said, would allow members to challenge and potentially strike out the earmarks through a parliamentary maneuver called a point of order if new earmarks are “air-dropped” into House and Senate conference bills, the final stage of the legislative process.
Last year, Flake offered 39 amendments to strike earmarks from appropriations bill, but all of those efforts failed after attracting only paltry support. Undeterred, Flake pledged to offer similar amendments this year.
Flake noted that the deal, as he understands it, would apply to the remaining appropriations bills, not the homeland security and military construction spending bills the House is considering this week.
Exempting the homeland security and military construction bills would not bother him, he said, because he and other conservatives do not believe those bills traditionally include “egregious earmarks.” Even so, Republicans have spent the last two days trying to prevent money in the bill from being spent on puppet shows and Louis Vuitton handbags.
“Both transparency and accountability are necessary for earmark reform to be meaningful,” Flake continued. “Keeping earmarks secret until conference committees meet didn’t achieve either goal. This new plan should take us closer in that direction.”