'Make Them Famous'

By Thomas Duffy / June 5, 2012 at 6:48 PM

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has long enjoyed the "maverick" label used to describe his tendency to go his own way. He has also been called a few other names by fellow members of the Senate for his penchant for revealing how that chamber makes its sausage. Year after year, when appropriations and authorization bills are being debated on the Senate floor, McCain has loudly complained about the special spending provisions other senators have added. And he has named names.

McCain will be at it again when the Senate Armed Services Committee's fiscal year 2013 defense authorization bill is brought to the Senate floor. The committee's report on the bill was released today -- and in it, McCain says the legislation "once again authorizes hundreds of millions of dollars in unnecessary and unrequested projects."

And, McCain says, phrases such as "committee initiative" should not be used to hide additions that are nothing more than earmarks, the authors of which he says he will make "famous."

Two perennial additions that highlight the problem of unrequested authorizations are the Industrial Base Innovation Fund (IBIF) and the Defense Rapid Innovation Program (DRIP), which together are earmarked for $230 million in unrequested funds. I am pleased to note, however, that the Committee finally saw fit to quit authorizing the Metals Affordability Initiative -- another perennial earmark (now termed a `Committee initiative' since earmarks are officially banned). I have consistently said that, if the Department of Defense believes programs like IBIF and DRIP are worthwhile, they need to start expressing that sentiment by including them in the budget request. When our men and women in uniform are being asked to sacrifice so much, this Committee should reassess our priorities and stop pushing our special interests.

There is another new form of earmark -- what our critics have come to call 'phone-marks.' I intend to offer an amendment during Senate floor consideration of the bill that will 'make them famous' by requiring the Administration to publish a record of any calls, emails, or other correspondence from Members or their staff who seek to direct funding from any program that should be awarded on the basis of competition or merit-based processes to non-competitive, non-merit-based activities.

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