Flake Takes On No-Bid Contract Earmarks in DOD Appropriations Bill

Monday, July 27, 2009 3:54 PM

Congressman and anti-pork crusader Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) has filed 540 amendments to the Department of Defense appropriations bill headed to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives this week.

The bill, brought up under a closed rule this week, contains over a thousand earmarks totalling $2.7 billion, 540 of which go to private companies and essentially amount to no-bid contracts.

Says Flake:

Simply put, Members of Congress should not have the ability to award no-bid contracts. Even worse, many times the recipients of these earmark sare campaign contributors.  The practice has created an ethical cloud over Congress, and it needs to end.

These earmarks receive scant scrutiny by the House Appropriations Committee – the Committee’s markup of the bill lasted all of 18 minutes – so challenging earmarks on the House floor is the only inspection that most of these no-bid contracts will receive.

It will be interesting to see how the Rules committee will treat the 540 amendments.

Tags: Earmarks Federal | Comments (4)

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