Rep. Flake Presses On In Earmark Probe

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) is vowing to continue to hammer the ethics committee about its review of a pay-to-play earmark scandal in the wake of a Democratic attempt to silence his inquiries.

Democrats on Thursday evening used a parliamentary maneuver to refer a resolution Flake authored to the ethics committee on a near-party-line vote of 397-0, with 12 members voting present.

The move was an attempt to shut down Flake’s scrutiny of a recent ethics committee report exonerating lawmakers with ties to PMA Group, a lobbying firm known for showering members with campaign cash in return for receiving multimillion-dollar earmarks for clients.

Flake has expressed deep frustration over the brevity of the ethics panel’s PMA Group report. His resolution called on the ethics panel to show its hand and produce the work behind the report, including how many subpoenas the committee sent out.

Ethics watchdogs have criticized the five-page report that includes no documents; evidence of interviews conducted as a whitewash of a serious and wide-ranging pay-to-play scandal involving members of the Appropriations Defense subcommittee; the tens of millions of dollars in earmarks they doled out to PMA Group clients; and the campaign contributions they received in return.

The ethics panel never announced an investigative subcommittee to look into the matter. According to ethics observers, the panel cannot issue subpoenas without convening an investigative subcommittee first.

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