[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 51 (Monday, March 20, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4164-S4165]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             INTEGRITY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE BUDGET

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, over the next few days, I intend to give 
a series of speeches on the integrity of the Department of Defense 
budget.
  Before I get started, and for the benefit of all new Senators, I want 
to give some background on how I got involved with these defense 
issues.
  I want to share a small piece of history with my colleagues. I think 
we can learn from this history and hopefully we can avoid past 
mistakes. But we cannot learn from our mistakes if the history remains 
buried in old issues of the Congressional Record. So I want to share my 
experiences with, particularly, my new colleagues, because over half of 
the Members in the Senate today were not Members of this body 10 years 
ago when President Reagan's massive military buildup was fiercely 
debated right here in this Chamber. I think that was a defining 
experience for me.
  We made a major decision when we stopped the Reagan defense buildup 
that, at that point, had been going on for 3 or 4 years. This process 
helped to shape my thinking, as I said. Even though it took place more 
than 10 years ago, I think it still is having some ripple effect today. 
Its mark on current defense policy is unmistakable. So it is important 
to understand the dynamics of that debate, at least from my 
perspective.
  I was convinced--almost from day one--that the Pentagon, through its 
actions, was bent on launching a wasteful budget buildup. I was 
convinced that we were about to throw huge sums of money at a problem 
better solved by structural reform and honest management.
   [[Page S4165]] Let me say that by the time we finally made a 
decision to stop the Reagan defense buildup and freeze the defense 
budget, we had, in fact, wasted a lot of money.
  So, seeing this, I did--and there were several others that did, as 
well--what I could to stop this waste of money. I offered an amendment 
to freeze the defense budget. That was on the fiscal year 1986 budget 
resolution. My amendment was adopted on May 2, 1985, by a one-vote 
margin of 50 to 49. That act alone threw a monkey wrench into the 
Reagan administration's plan to continue their ramp-up of the defense 
budget.
  But, more than anything else, it was the spare parts horror stories 
in the early 1980's that changed my thinking on this issue. You know, 
the $750 pair of pliers or the $7,000 coffee pot. The spare parts 
horror stories were a turning point. They convinced me that the plan 
for this massive ramp-up of defense expenditures was a colossal 
taxpayer ripoff. These spare parts horror stories undermined the 
credibility of the Reagan defense buildup. The spare parts horror 
stories turned me into a defense reformer. They drove me to 
watchdogging and to digging into fraud, waste, and abuse at the 
Pentagon.
  That was early in my Senate career.
  I began watchdogging from my vantage point as a member of the Budget 
Committee and as chairman of the General Oversight Subcommittee of the 
Judiciary Committee.
  I am not, nor ever have been, a member of the Armed Services 
Committee, and only served 4 short years on the Appropriations 
Committee.
  So, as a conservative Republican, it is not easy for me to take on 
these issues, not being on the appropriate committees. But if common 
sense tells me something is not right, I speak out and I dig. I am 
still digging today, and I hope a lot of my colleagues are digging as 
well.
  As a consequence of my position on defense, I took a lot of heat from 
Republicans during the 12 years of the Reagan-Bush administrations. 
Most of my colleagues on this side of the aisle think that defense is 
some kind of sacred cow. They think it has been inoculated and should 
be immune from criticism. They take a dim view of my position on 
defense.
  The Democrats, by comparison, gave me no heat at all. In fact, on 
defense issues, I got a lot more support from Democrats than I did from 
Republicans.
  In the 1980's, Democrats--plus a handful of Republicans like Senator 
Roth, for example--helped me ferret out waste and abuse at the 
Pentagon.
  I had the privilege of working closely with a number of Democrats, 
some in the House, some in the Senate--Senators like Senator Pryor, 
Senator Levin, Senator Boxer, and others--to bring about some defense 
reform. We worked together to freeze the Department of Defense budget. 
We worked together to beef up independent testing of a new weapons 
system. We crafted the false claims bill, which brought $1 billion of 
fraudulent wasted money back into the Treasury, and we passed the 
whistleblower protection legislation. And we worked together to cut out 
wasteful spending.
  That is my point, Mr. President.
  When we had a Republican President and a Democratic Congress, it was 
very unpopular for a Republican Senator to take on a Republican 
President on defense. But I was not afraid to do it.
  Then in 1993, as you know, we got a Democratic President with a 
Democratic Congress. I kept right on doing what I had been doing--
digging into fraud, waste, and abuse at the Pentagon--even though some 
of my Democratic allies at that point seemed to disappear into the 
weeds because they did not want to be criticizing a Pentagon run by a 
political appointee of their party.
  Now we have a Republican Congress, Mr. President, but we still have a 
Democratic President. And it happens that this Democratic President is 
considered weak on defense.
  Once again, it is very unpopular to tangle with the Pentagon. But I 
intend to keep right on doing it as we move into this budget season 
once again.
  Because the same old problems persist. So we need to keep right on 
digging. We need to keep right on watchdogging just like before, 
because really, Mr. President, nothing has changed.
  I only hope that the Members on the other side of the aisle will be 
there when I and the American people need them. I say that because they 
are the President's party. I hope a few of my Republican allies will 
help me bring some fiscal discipline to the Pentagon budget.
  I hope all the new Members of the Senate who were not here the last 
time we debated this issue will study it very closely. I hope that the 
new Republican Members who ran on a campaign of no longer business as 
usual, they ran on a campaign to make a difference, everything I have 
seen from the new Members of this body--who are all Republicans--they 
are showing, every Member, that they have not changed one iota since 
November 8, the night of their election.
  They are equally committed to showing the people of this country it 
is no longer business as usual. They are equally committed to making 
sure that things change. They have made an impact on the other Members 
of this body who are not new, both Republican and Democrat. They are 
keeping the focus where it ought to be.
  I am saying, especially to those new Republican Members of this body, 
that I hope they will take as tough a look at how money is being spent 
in the Defense Department and that they will not buy the argument that 
you can throw money at the Defense Department and automatically get 
more defense, any more than I know these new Members will accept the 
argument from the other side of the aisle on social welfare, education, 
and a lot of other domestic programs, that all we have to do somehow is 
spend more money and we automatically get more and better programs.
  The fact of the matter is, it does not matter whether it is 
Republicans or Democrats, Republican spending on defense or Democrat 
spending on social programs, we only get for our money what we make 
sure we get for our money. It is not how much money we appropriate. It 
is how that money is spent that we ought to be concerned about. And it 
will determine whether or not we have a strong national security 
program, or whether we have a strong education program, or a strong 
welfare program.
  I hope that my allies--and I hope we have some new allies, as well--
will fight just as hard with me for a good, sound, defense policy now 
that the Republicans are the majority party in this Congress. I hope 
they will help me make sure that the taxpayers' money is spent wisely 
and, most importantly, according to law. I will have four or five 
speeches later on in the next few days on how some of this money is not 
being spent according to law.
  I hope they will help me make sure that the citizens get a full and 
accurate accounting of how their money was spent by the Pentagon. And I 
hope that my speeches will help set the stage for a better 
understanding of the problem and more sound decisions on defense. I 
hope they will help the new Senators understand that just throwing more 
money at the Defense Department will not automatically give Americans 
greater and better defense.
  Tomorrow I plan to talk about the accuracy of the Department of 
Defense budget and accounting data. As I go along, I hope to draw on my 
experiences with the defense issues of the 1980's. I want to use those 
experiences as a way of trying to bring today's defense debate into 
sharper focus. I yield the floor.

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