National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I also want to thank the chairman and ranking member for including this amendment in the en bloc.

Mr. Chairman, McGovern-Jones-Welch is a straightforward, bipartisan amendment. It requires the President to certify that the Afghanistan Independent Election Commission and the Afghan Electoral Complaints Commission have the professional capacity, legal authority and independence to carry out and oversee free, fair and honest elections, absent the fraud that characterized the 2009 presidential elections, before U.S. taxpayer dollars can support the next round of elections. I don't think that that's too much to ask.

I was in Afghanistan just after the 2009 elections. I didn't meet anyone who thought that those elections were honest. The Embassy told me they were a fraud. The U.N. said they were a fraud. The Afghan people knew they were a fraud. Even President Karzai conceded that they were massively fraudulent. And $200 million of U.S. taxpayer money went into those elections. Just think about it, $200 million. I don't want to see history repeat itself. I don't want the American taxpayer ripped off again.

More is at stake than the waste of money. The U.S. military strategy depends on an honest, competent Afghan government that can win the loyalty of the people. If September's parliamentary elections are also fraudulent, the result could be even greater local and regional turmoil.

No matter where you stand on our policy on Afghanistan, let's make sure that the September elections are free, fair and honest. This amendment strengthens our leverage. Our uniformed men and women are fighting and dying in Afghanistan. The least we can ask is that the Afghan government carries out free, fair and honest elections.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Chair, I thank Congresswoman SCHAKOWSKY for her leadership on this amendment--and on the many issues surrounding private contractors.

Mr. Chair, this amendment is all about accountability and stopping waste, fraud and abuse. It's long past time that we increased and improved the monitoring and oversight of private contractors, especially military, defense and security contractors.

This amendment, like the provision in my bill, H.R. 5015, places these contractors under the audit and review of our existing Inspectors General, and allows the Special IG for Reconstruction in Afghanistan to make concrete recommendations to the Pentagon, State Department and USAID on how to bring to account and even stop doing business with those contractors with records of waste, fraud and abuse--let alone a record of abusing and killing innocent civilians.

Mr. Chair, this amendment is good for the American taxpayer. It's good for our national security. And it's good for our reputation and standing abroad.

It is a win-win amendment.

I ask my colleagues to support the Schakowsky-McGovern-Hinchey-Conyers-Moran amendment on expanding the oversight over and accountability of private contractors in Afghanistan.

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