Arizona's newest congressman travels to Washington for orientation

WASHINGTON – Jeff Flake says he’s eager to tackle taxes and other issues when the new congressional session begins in January.

This week, the Arizona congressman-elect is in Washington with other new members of the 107th Congress for orientation sessions about setting up their offices and other House procedures.

Flake, a Republican, beat Democrat David Mendoza to take over the Mesa-area House seat that Rep. Matt Salmon is leaving because of a self-imposed, three-term limit. Flake said he has had some preliminary talks with GOP House leaders about what committees he would like to join

– but did not want to jinx his prospects by saying publicly what those committees are.

“I’m very interested in tax issues,” Flake said in an interview Friday. “I’ve said throughout the campaign that my number one agenda item is substantial and meaningful tax cuts.”

Flake said what he wanted to find out more than what office he will get and what committees he will join is whether George W. Bush or Al Gore will be the next president.

“I want to know who I’ll be working with in the White House, because that does have a bearing on the kind of agenda you put together,” Flake said.

That agenda, Flake said, includes trying to push the federal government to give state and local governments more flexibility in areas such as pollution regulations and education. An example: Flake wants to end a federal requirement that school districts spend 75 percent of federal funds for immigrant children on bilingual education programs.

“That has been a horrible thing for the state and local school districts,” Flake said. Removing that requirement also would enable Arizona schools to better comply with a measure state voters approved last week abolishing traditional bilingual education programs.

Washington is somewhat familiar territory for Flake, who worked at a public affairs firm here in the late 1980s before going to Namibia – an African nation where he had served as a Mormon missionary – to work for a group overseeing that nation’s transition to independence from South Africa in 1990. He returned to Washington that year and represented Namibian companies in the capitol for two years.

Flake said he wants to use his African experience to push for removing trade barriers.

“I would love to see us help those (African) economies by trading with them,” Flake said. “I would like to advance any free trade agenda we can.”



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