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Tiahrt Statement on Integrity of Vetting Defense-related Projects

10/30/09

WASHINGTON—U.S. Congressman Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) issued the following statement about his process for submitting defense-related project requests to the House Appropriations Committee. This comes after the release of an article late Thursday by the Washington Post that mentions Tiahrt by name.
 
“We are not sure what the document referenced by the Washington Post contains but obviously would be eager to see a copy, especially given that several false and misleading inferences could be made by reading the article. The only relevant correlation between what was written about me in the Washington Post article and what we know is that the OCE asked us about the process followed in our office for submitting defense-related project requests to the Appropriations Committee. We have fully complied with this OCE request and are more than willing to discuss our process further if there are additional questions. Additionally, we have no reason whatsoever to believe that we are subject to a House Ethics Committee investigation.
 
“The American people deserve, and I have been working toward, a transparent process on how their hard-earned tax money is spent. And although it is unfair to be the victim of a leaked story, I am completely comfortable with discussing how I operate on the Committee and am completely comfortable with oversight of our process.
 
“We have an extensive, 4-phase, 15-step process for scrutinizing defense-related project requests to determine which ones have merit for the warfighter and Kansas workers. This multi-step vetting process is available on my Web site for anyone to view. Only projects that meet these stringent requirements are then submitted to the Appropriations Committee for consideration. If approved by the Committee, they are eventually considered and voted on by the full House.
 
“Projects I submit that are approved by both the Appropriations Committee and the full House are made available online with my name appearing next to the initiative. I also routinely issue press releases for these funding requests because I’m proud to fight for worthy projects that help protect our troops serving overseas and that create thousands of direct, high-quality Kansas jobs. 
 
“Throughout my career in Congress I have worked tirelessly to ensure our men and women in uniform have the tools necessary to carry out the will of this nation. I am honored to use my position on the Appropriations Committee to further this goal, and I look for every opportunity to support defense-related projects that are based in Kansas.
 
“I take pride in our professional and ethical process for reviewing requests made to my office – a process that we undertake to ensure the highest level of integrity is part of all our conduct.”
 
Editor’s note: Thursday evening House Ethics Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren and Ranking Member Jo Bonner alerted the public to a “cyber-hacking incident of a confidential document” that had allegedly been obtained by the Washington Post. In a colloquy from the House floor, Lofgren and Bonner stated that dozens of Members’ names appear on the Committee’s weekly report and that “no inference should be made as to any incorrect behavior on the part of those members… Any other inference would be a serious mistake.” Tiahrt’s name reportedly was listed in the document obtained by the Washington Post.
 
For access to the 4-phase, 15-step vetting process for defense-related project requests, click here.