Sestak, Democrats Swatting at Fruit Flies

Press Release

Sestak, Democrats Swatting at Fruit Flies

Democrats attack Craig Williams for targeting Congressional pork including a $211,059 earmark for olive fruit fly research in France.

Craig Williams, the Republican Congressional candidate in Pennsylvania's 7th District, today shot back at Democrats for attacking his strong opposition to pork barrel spending and earmarks. In a letter that appeared in today's Delaware County Daily Times, Congressman Joe Sestak's Democrat colleague Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA) attacked Williams for expressing his opposition to using the tax dollars of local residents to fund a $211,059 earmark for olive fruit fly research in France.

"This is the problem with earmarks: Members of Congress are so addicted to these taxpayer funded handouts to special interests and campaign donors that they are blinded to the truth," said Craig Williams, who has pledged to oppose congressional pork. "If olive fruit fly research in France is so important to the California economy, then let the state of California or the olive industry fund it. The taxpayers of the Delaware Valley should not be footing the bill for this."

"Earmarks are a form of corruption," said Williams. "They are used as sweeteners and chips by leadership to coerce members into voting for legislation that they may not otherwise support. If a Member of Congress does not vote with party leadership or signs onto a discharge petition, they risk losing their pork projects. That is bad for democracy and makes for bad public policy."

Williams said the so-called earmark reforms heralded by Joe Sestak and both parties in Congress are little more than a sham, as evidenced by a recent investigative report by the Seattle Times. In 2007, Sestak trumpeted the passage of reforms that he claimed would require lawmakers to disclose the sponsors of earmarks. The Seattle Times investigation showed that lawmakers continue to hide earmarks, violating the pledge to provide full transparency and cut earmarks in half:

"An in-depth examination of the 2008 defense bill found $8.5 billion in earmarks. Of those, 40 percent -- $3.5 billion -- were hidden. And Congress broke its pledge -- and President Bush's challenge -- to cut earmarks in half. Lawmakers cut the dollar amount of defense earmarks by about a fourth and the number by 19 percent. The hidden earmarks range from $8 million for lighting sold by a financially troubled company in North Carolina to $588 million for a submarine the administration doesn't want.

After months of investigating the $459 billion 2008 defense bill, The Times found:

The hidden $3.5 billion included 155 earmarks, among them the most costly in the bill. Congress disclosed 2,043 earmarks worth $5 billion.

The House broke the new rules at least 110 times by failing to disclose who was getting earmarks, making it difficult for the public to judge whether the money is being spent wisely…

Last year, Congress promised to shed light on the secretive process. But the lists of earmarks are still buried in obscure documents that are difficult to find and search. Until Congress put them online a couple of weeks ago, the House disclosure letters, linking lawmakers to companies, were thick volumes of paper kept in a cabinet in the offices of the House Appropriations Committee.

When a reporter for Congressional Quarterly pointed out how difficult it remains to pull all the information together, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the committee that drafts the defense bill, had a quick answer: "Tough s**t." (Source: The Seattle Times, 10/12/08).

"Joe Sestak campaigned on the promise of earmark reform and changing Washington, DC but Washington, DC changed Joe Sestak," said Williams. "As the Seattle Times report makes clear, earmark abuse is alive and well in Congress. In fact, Sestak is so committed to the earmark culture that he is dispatching his Congressional colleague from California to attack me for questioning the value of pork projects."

"Sestak is not the bi-partisan voice of change he promised voters that he would be," said Williams. "He has voted with Nancy Pelosi 97 percent of the time and he spent more on taxpayer funded mailings than anyone else in the Pennsylvania congressional delegation. He is not living up to his promises to local residents."

Craig Williams is running for Congress the 7th Congressional District of Pennsylvania, comprising most of Delaware County and parts of Montgomery and Chester Counties. Williams is a former federal prosecutor, Marine combat veteran, and former active duty Deputy Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He lives in Concord Township, Delaware County, with his wife Jennifer, daughter and two step-children. The 7th District is his home - where he lives, where his kids go to school, where he pays taxes, where he attends church, and where he intends to spend the rest of his life.

Source