# William Proxmire

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "William Proxmire," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/william-proxmire/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*Democratic senator from Wisconsin, elected in the special election following Joseph McCarthy's death, whose monthly Golden Fleece Award targeted wasteful federal spending. John Kiriakou describes Proxmire as a recurring irritant to the CIA — which, he says, repeatedly saw its concealed budget line items exposed to ridicule because the cover stories invented to hide them looked exactly like waste.*

- **Office:** United States Senator from Wisconsin (Democrat)
- **Elected:** Special election following the death of Joseph McCarthy (per Kiriakou, '1956 or 57, 58')
- **Known for:** The Golden Fleece Award, given monthly at a press conference
- **Politics (per Kiriakou):** Progressive Democrat who 'hated, hated, hated government spending'
- **Left the Senate:** 1998, per Kiriakou

**William Proxmire** was a Democratic senator from Wisconsin. [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) recounts that he won the special election held after the death of *"the notorious Joe McCarthy"*, dating it loosely to *"1956 or 57, 58"*, and describes him as *"a progressive Democrat who just hated, hated, hated government spending."*[1]

Proxmire's instrument was the **Golden Fleece Award**, handed out once a month at a press conference to whichever government entity he judged to be fleecing the American taxpayer.[1]

## Collision with the CIA

In Kiriakou's account the award repeatedly landed on the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) without Proxmire intending it, because of the way the agency's budget is hidden. Proxmire would see a line item such as *"$12 million to study gay monkeys in Guatemala"*, declare it an outrage, and award the Golden Fleece to whichever State Department office or USAID programme appeared to be handling it. *"Well, there's no $12 million program to study gay monkeys in Guatemala — that was the cover story. That line item was $12 million from the CIA budget that had been embedded there."*[2][3] The result, Kiriakou says, was that *"the CIA was just apoplectic every month when Proxmire would do his Golden Fleece award."*[4] See [concealment of the CIA budget](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-budget-concealment).

## Afterwards

Kiriakou says Proxmire left the Senate in 1998 and that *"nobody like William Proxmire has ever been elected since then"* — while the agency *"is still doing the same thing it did when it was trying to dodge his Golden Fleece award. They're still lying about the budget, they're still embedding covert action programs all over government."*[4]

## See also

- [Concealment of the CIA budget](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-budget-concealment)
- [USAID as a CIA cover vehicle](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/usaid-cia-front-operations)
- [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)

## Sources

1. Where the Hell Is Panquake? Surveillance & The Technocratic (2025-03-01), at 54:52. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M8u-MbN9jA&t=3292s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-01-truthwire-where-the-hell-is-panquake-surveillance-the-t/
2. Where the Hell Is Panquake? Surveillance & The Technocratic (2025-03-01), at 55:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M8u-MbN9jA&t=3324s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-01-truthwire-where-the-hell-is-panquake-surveillance-the-t/
3. Where the Hell Is Panquake? Surveillance & The Technocratic (2025-03-01), at 55:55. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M8u-MbN9jA&t=3355s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-01-truthwire-where-the-hell-is-panquake-surveillance-the-t/
4. Where the Hell Is Panquake? Surveillance & The Technocratic (2025-03-01), at 56:27. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M8u-MbN9jA&t=3387s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-01-truthwire-where-the-hell-is-panquake-surveillance-the-t/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/william-proxmire/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt