Jeff Flake | Congressman Arizona’s Sixth District

Washington, D.C., Sep 13 - Republican Congressman Jeff Flake, who represents Arizona’s Sixth District, today voted no on H.J.Res. 117, a six-month spending bill to expire in March of 2013. The bill appropriates on an annualized basis $1.047 trillion in total federal spending for the first six months of FY2013, which maintains the spending level set by the Budget Control Act for FY2013 but represents an increase of roughly $8 billion from the FY2012 spending level.
 
          Notwithstanding the mammoth level of federal spending, the legislation extends the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program despite persistent concerns with the Obama Administration’s weakening of work requirements established by the 1996 welfare reform law.
 
         “Spending levels are still too high, and this bill does nothing to address that,” said Flake.  “Add to that extending a welfare program despite persistent concerns over the Obama Administration's weakening of work requirements, and this legislation is simply untenable.”