{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.flake.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=350692fa-d8b4-436f-9730-d03a0d146758", "Wastebook: The Farce Awakens", "2015-12-02", "2015", "2015-12", "Republican", "House", "AZ", "Jeff Flake", "F000444", "www.flake.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C.  U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) today released a video announcing that he will release Wastebook: The Farce Awakens on Tuesday, Dec. 8. Flakes report  the latest in the franchise begun by retired U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)  will feature over 100 examples of wasteful federal spending including a taxpayer-funded study of sheep in microgravity, beer as foreign food-aid, a virtual haunted house and an experiment involving a monkey in a hamster ball on treadmill.\r\nThe video can be viewed here.\r\nWastebook will be Flakes fourth oversight report in a year. In Nov. 2015, he joined U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to release Tackling Paid Patriotism, a report on their joint investigation into taxpayer-funded payments by the Department of Defense to professional sports teams for patriotic displays honoring the U.S. military.\r\nIn June 2015, Flake responded to calls for a return to the practice of congressional earmarking by releasing Jurassic Pork, a report highlighting the continued cost of pork projects in the post-earmark-ban era.\r\nIn Dec. 2014, Flake published the Science of Splurging, a report highlighting more than a dozen examples of wasteful and egregious spending by the Environmental Protection Agency.\r\nSince June 2014, Flake has regularly released PorkChops, a series highlighting wasteful and egregious federal spending.\r\nWhile serving in the House, Flake established the Egregious Earmark of the Week series, which ran from 2003 until 2010, after Congress enacted a self-imposed moratorium on congressional earmarks.\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.flake.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=350692fa-d8b4-436f-9730-d03a0d146758"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.537935808300972, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}