Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Hurricane Recovery, 2006

EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT FOR DEFENSE, THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR, AND HURRICANE RECOVERY, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - March 16, 2006)

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, my amendment, offered with its very able champion, Congressman John Tierney of Massachusetts, will create a select House committee modeled on the Truman Commission created during World War II to exercise due diligence and proper congressional oversight on the over half a trillion dollars of expenditures by the government of the United States to conduct the global war on terrorism, as well as those contracts let for rebuilding of the gulf region after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The original Truman Commission recouped over $15 billion to our taxpayers. That is big money in our time. But it was huge money back then, returned to our taxpayers from those interests that were conducting their business above and beyond the letter of the law.

We are asking for a thorough investigation of any waste, fraud and abuse in government contracts associated with the Iraq war and the global war on terrorism, as well as Katrina-Rita recovery and reconstruction.

Our amendment is responsible. It is a good government amendment. It provides real means for oversight that is thorough, not anecdotal.

Currently, no committee in this House has full investigative authority to probe growing public concerns about where our tax dollars are being spent in this contracting. The charges are legion of cost-plus contracts, contractor fraud, as contracts below $500,000 are purposely kept at that level to circumvent review. Criminal operatives like Rob Stein have been charged and arrested for manipulating Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority accounts in bribery and kickback schemes, waste and abuse.

This administration is moving billions of dollars with no audit trails, even back to the Appropriations Committee, which should receive those audits. In Iraq, no-bid contracts of enormous proportions are let, like to Halliburton. In Iraq, rebuilding contracts, amounting to millions are missing. A few wrongdoers have been arrested, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. Companies like Custer Battles, given contracts to secure Baghdad Airport, is a company that never did security work. Indeed it submitted invoices for electricity that were only valued at $74,000, but they got $400,000. Broken trucks bought in local markets cost $228,000, yet Custer Battles billed for $800,000. In our Gulf region, no-bid contracts need Congressional oversight.

Over 10,000 manufactured houses sit on the ground in open fields in Hope, Arkansas, costing more than $300 million.

Our amendment aims to protect the taxpayer. It will save money. It will save lives as we bring back inferior equipment that is discovered during this oversight.

This amendment will allow Congress to do its job, to oversee exactly how billions in taxpayer dollars are being spent in Iraq and our Gulf coast. The American people deserve this kind of responsible government.

It is critical that Congress curtail the opportunities for waste, fraud and abuse in future Federal contracting and bring those to task who are not meeting the letter and spirit of the law.

Mr. Chairman, I will be pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts and any remaining time I may have to himself as well as to Congressman Walter Jones of North Carolina for their stellar work on this effort.

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