Appropriations Committee needs an oversight panel

If Republicans are serious about cutting spending, Heritage’s Robert Bluey argues in Politico, they have to reform the process first.  All three candidates vying for the chair of Appropriations have proposed creating an Oversight subcommittee to investigate how money gets used and where duplication exists as a means to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse throughout the federal budget.  Not only does Bluey concur, he even has the right man for the job, although Bluey doesn’t quite get to endorsing Flake for the job:

The idea of an investigations subcommittee was first offered by Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.). It’s similar to a proposal supported by Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), who is seeking a waiver to keep the job as the panel’s top Republican. Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) has also made oversight part of his pitch to the steering committee, which is due to select a chairman this week.

Regardless of who wins, oversight should be a priority for the new chairman. At least that’s the way Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) sees it. Flake, an anti-earmark crusader who could finally land a seat on the committee, sent a letter to his colleagues endorsing the idea.

“Taxpayers deserve an Appropriations subcommittee dedicated to oversight,” he wrote, “that can aggressively pursue an agenda focused on cutting waste, reducing duplication and increasing transparency. …

Flake’s letter outlined seven potential areas the new subcommittee could tackle immediately. They included reviewing how the Department of Transportation awarded stimulus grants, tracking the effectiveness of Head Start spending and looking for waste in homeland security grants.

Or, of course, earmarks.  Flake has tried to get a seat on the committee for years in order to stop the flow of pork.  Instead, he has had to conduct his Porkbusting from the sidelines, using House rules expertly to force embarrassing votes.  Although Flake usually loses those battles, the incoming Democrats in 2007 had to change the rules to keep Flake from embarrassing their supposed swamp-draining approach to House control.

That oversight is needed more now than ever, especially on pork.  A new study shows that Congress requested almost 40,000 earmarks in the still-unfinished FY2011 budget for more than $130 billion:

Members of Congress requested almost 40,000 earmarks that exceeded $100 billion directed to their home districts and states for the current fiscal year, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis to be released Tuesday. …

In total, the new database – which was developed by Taxpayers Against Earmarks, Taxpayers for Common Sense and WashingtonWatch.com – showed that House members and senators from both parties asked for 39,294 earmarks worth an eye-popping $131 billion.

Most of those requests were made for show, and weren’t expected to go anywhere.  Still, the sheer volume of requests shows just how corrupt and corrupting this process can be — and how oversight into the need for funding has to be part of the process.  As Bluey notes, that authority already rests with Appropriations, but has gone mostly unexercised by the committee while in control of either party.

That has to change if Republicans want to build credibility as a party of reform.  They need to create the subcommittee and give it wide latitude for probes into existing and future spending, and they need a real reformer to run it.  Jeff Flake would be a tremendous asset to taxpayers in that position — and a sign that Republicans mean business when it comes to spending reductions and cleaner government.