[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 116 (Tuesday, July 18, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H7154-H7155]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                 AUDIT OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Brownback] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. Speaker, on the opening day of this Congress, 
January 4, there were a number of needed reforms that were passed in 
this institution. One was an audit of the House of Representatives. In 
looking back on that period of time, we were talking then about, well, 
when was the last time that the institution of the House of 
Representatives, the People's House, had been audited?
  We looked back and we looked back and we looked back and found out it 
had never been audited before ever in the history of the institution. 
It is about time, and that audit was released today. A number of us as 
freshmen Members coming into this body had asked for and pushed for 
reforms of Congress, that the Congress itself had grown imperial and 
aloof.
  One of those things that it had failed to have done was audit itself. 
It asked for that of all sorts of other institutions, both public and 
private, but not of itself.

                              {time}  1945

  Mr. Speaker, the closet doors were thrown open today with the audit 
coming forth, and it revealed many problems of the House of 
Representatives and skeletons in the closet, such as the recordkeeping 
was so shoddy and haphazard that our auditor would not suggest any 
definite conclusion on the reliability of the financial statements. 
Oversight was so flexible as to be nonexistent. It was anything goes 
for some Members in the past.
  Mr. Speaker, computing services in the House were woefully inadequate 
for modern security needs, and accounting practices were, in effect, 
run on an inappropriate cash basis instead of an accrual accounting 
basis to account for debts and earnings.
  Congress must not operate in the dark. A regular, independent audit 
coupled with the other reforms of the institution will keep this place 
honest, and we will begin to rebuild the people's faith in this body.
  As much as I am disgusted by the results of the audit, I am proud to 
have carried the bill authorizing the audit to this floor in January. 
It was a good way to begin the year. The House audit is the first and 
only comprehensive and 

[[Page H 7155]]
independent audit of House operations, something inconceivable in the 
recent past.
  We are committed to regular audits in the future, just like any other 
institution. It is embarrassing to realize that the executive branch 
instituted regular audits the year I was born.
  Congress in the past has betrayed the public trust. Now we have to 
ask, and we must ask, to get that public trust back and to earn it 
back. An audit is one way of doing that. We must push reforms to the 
next level. We have already instituted a number of the recommendations 
made by the Price Waterhouse firm that did the auditing. We need to 
evaluate the remainder of those.
  This audit is one of the best indications of real change in the 
Congress. People sent us here to change government, and we are doing 
it.
  With this audit, Congress has taken steps toward credibility with the 
American people. Congress must operate in the open. As we legislate 
openness and accountability for private companies and public 
institutions, we have to obey these principles ourselves. The old 
Congress didn't obey these rules.
  The auditors found in the last Congress a shocking disregard for 
financial control, for institutional management, and just pure common 
sense.
  For example, the audit showed that some of the Members overspent 
their allowances for staff salaries, office expenses, and official 
mail. It showed Members being paid twice for their travel expenses. If 
Congress were a business, an auto repair shop, a farm, a bank, well, by 
the auditors' own statements, they would not be able to get a loan and 
they would be bankrupt. If it was a public institution, it would have 
been violating laws since 1990.
  It is time that these practices end, and today we finally had the 
audit that came forward with the information to open the closet doors. 
This is only a start. We have to continue these reforms. We have to 
continue to open this body up to the people so that they can look and 
see and hear and learn what all is taking place.
  This is taxpayer dollars, and this is how the people's decisions are 
being made. We need to continue to open that up. I am very proud that 
this first big step was taken today, to open up, and now we have to 
continue to push this forward. We have to aggressively pursue those 
things that are put forward in this audit to be able to clean up the 
People's House.
  Mr. Speaker, I am happy to hear of this audit coming forward, and I 
think the American people will be most interested in its findings.


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