Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2004 - Continued

DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2004—CONTINUED

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, before they leave, I commend my colleague from Connecticut, Senator Dodd, and my colleague from Vermont, Senator Jeffords, for the tremendous work they are doing on behalf of that critically important
population of kids.

As the Senator from Connecticut noted, my home State would receive substantial sums under their important amendment. I support it and urge all my colleagues in the Senate to support the amendment.

IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, news reports last week revealed that the Bechtel Corporation would be receiving an extra $350 million in Iraq reconstruction work over and above the $680 million contract they were awarded by the U.S. Agency
for International Development earlier this year.

Meanwhile, it was also reported that the Halliburton company has been awarded contracts totaling $1.7 billion in connection with the war in Iraq.

Despite repeated promises by the administration to recompete Halliburton's contract, most recently in July, this has still not occurred.

This is especially relevant today because the papers today reveal that the administration intends to seek more than $60 billion in additional taxpayer funding to cover the mounting costs in Iraq, and that is, of course, on top of the $79 billion wartime supplemental funding the President signed into law last April.

I come to the floor this afternoon because as this new debate begins, it should be noted that not once have U.S. taxpayers been given a true accounting of expenditures in Iraq.

This summer, I held, like so many colleagues, town meetings at home. I had 10 town meetings all across Oregon, and repeatedly at these sessions citizens would come up and say: Where are these vast sums going? What is being done to prevent waste in these expenditures? And isn't something being done to make sure that at a time when we are having so much difficulty in Oregon funding schools, health care, and essential services, steps are being taken at the national level to make sure these huge sums being spent for Iraqi reconstruction are being spent wisely?

But the fact is that the public and the Congress are in the dark with respect to a true accounting for these expenditures for Iraq reconstruction. I think the American people and the Congress deserve better.

The budget presented earlier this summer by the Administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, in effect, used accounting that resembled the approach about which Enron was talking. It had over $1 billion in capital expenditures off budget, and if these costs had been included, the budget simply would not have been in balance.

Certainly, no private company could operate this way. Its accounting would never pass muster with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Corporate Accountability Act.

My concern is the American taxpayers do not want to find themselves, with respect to these Iraqi reconstruction expenditures, in a situation like so many Enron employees faced—I had constituents involved in this—that hits them when the house of cards begins to crumble.

With enormous sums at stake, American taxpayers deserve a full accounting of what they are getting for their hard-earned tax dollars.

The question now for the Senate is: How much longer is the Congress going to continue to shovel money out the door for Iraqi reconstruction without insisting on the truth for those at home whom we represent? Americans have been kept in the dark about how these handpicked contractors go about doing their business.

Senator Collins, Senator Clinton, myself, and a group of Senators on a bipartisan basis, have been concerned about the substantial evidence that indicates that these contractors were not picked because they were the most cost competitive. In a rare moment of candor, one of the officials in the administration actually admitted that they were using companies to perform work that could be done at a lower cost. Yet there has been no justification for that, no explanation as to why time and again Federal agencies have let contracts for Iraqi reconstruction without asking for competitive bids at all or by confining the bidding process to a select group of U.S. companies that seem to have very good connections.

Earlier this year in the Defense appropriations bill, I was able to write into the legislation a measure that would require the administration to explain why it chose to let billions of dollars in private contracts for reconstruction go forward without open and competitive bidding. That measure is now in conference. I urge my colleagues to accept that provision, make sure that it gets to the President's desk, and that there is some accountability with respect to these dollars.

If billions of dollars are going to go out in private contracts, the rule ought to be open competitive bidding. Colleagues such as Senator Collins, who chairs the Committee on Governmental Affairs, have great expertise in this area. There have been various reports in recent years that have documented how it is fraught with problems for taxpayers if we get away from the principle of open and competitive bids. Yet it seems that the closed-bid process, closed and secret bids, are more the rule
rather than the exception with respect to Iraqi reconstruction contracts.

I believe if Federal agencies had to justify their spending decisions in Iraq, there would be egregious cases of waste that would be stopped. We would not see money funneled to a handpicked group of companies, and we would see more of the contracts awarded to lower bidders who actually had to compete, and the public would see the fruits of full and open competition.

Clearly, as this rebuilding effort goes forward, the American people are saying, at a time when our schools are closing early, at a time when we have bridges, roads, and critical infrastructure crumbling from neglect, they want to know what is being done to ensure that their tax dollars are spent in a judicious fashion.

This is not the first time this request has been made on the Senate floor, and I am certainly not the only Senator who has been issuing this call. As I said, on various legislation, the Defense authorization, the Defense appropriations bill, a bipartisan group of us, particularly the chair of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, Senators COLLINS, CLINTON, BYRD, LIEBERMAN, and myself, all of us have said it is time for some sunshine. It is time for some sunshine at a period when vast sums of the people's money are being used for Iraqi reconstruction, and yet little is known about how this money is being spent and whether it is being spent in a prudent fashion.

At a time when Oregon families are hurting, when we are having difficulty getting funds for education at home in Oregon—and I know this is true elsewhere—I want the full truth about how these tax dollars are being spent in Iraq and why the administration is refusing to use the most cost-effective method again and again for doling these dollars out.

Most of all, it is time for the administration to level with the public. At this point, virtually the only information Congress and the citizens of this country have with respect to these billions of dollars worth of contracts are the news reports.
Certainly, what I am reading makes the Iraqi contracting process look more like a cash grab for a few companies than a fair process to get the taxpayer the best deal. Instead of awarding the contracts to the lowest bidders, too often the administration has funneled ever larger sums to a select group of companies that seem awfully well connected.

Now, more than ever, taxpayers deserve to know the terms of the contracts that have been awarded and how these contractors were selected.

My amendment to the Defense appropriations bill would require the disclosure of that critical information. It would create not just openness in the contracting process but would help ensure that the careful spending of tax dollars in Iraq gets the value that America's working families deserve.

I think virtually every Member of the Senate would agree that the American people should not be asked to write blank check after blank check for the cost of rebuilding Iraq. They certainly should not be asked to do it when they have gotten absolutely no answers with respect to how their money is being spent and why. The American people have not received any assurance that their tax dollars are not being wasted in Iraq while so many of them are hurting at home.

So I intend to keep this fight visible on the Senate floor. I think all of us ought to be taking every step possible. We have two pieces of legislation to do it, to ensure that there is accountability for these expenditures, and to ensure that actual steps are taken to cut the waste. The families I represent in Oregon deserve careful, not wasteful, spending of tax dollars that are used to reconstruct Iraq. Right now, those citizens and the Congress are in the dark and the American people deserve better.

I yield the floor.