[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 197 (Tuesday, December 12, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H14355]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      SECRETARY O'LEARY THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION'S MATERIAL GIRL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Tiahrt] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, Secretary O'Leary is the Clinton 
administration's material girl. Secretary O'Leary has taken 16 overseas 
trips since she has taken office. She has been gone 130 days. That is, 
amazingly, 50 percent more time overseas than Secretary of State Warren 
Christopher, who is responsible for foreign relations and responsible 
for foreign policy.
  There is no material reason why the ``material girl'' spends so much 
time overseas. The Secretary of the Department of Defense is 
responsible for the storage of civilian and Department of Defense 
nuclear waste. She is responsible for the national energy labs, power 
marketing administrations, and storage of strategic oil reserves But 
Clinton's material girl, all her responsibilities are domestic. 
Domestic responsibilities.
  But Secretary O'Leary has leased a luxury jet, the same luxury jet 
that Hollywood's material girl, Madonna, uses. Let us look at one of 
the trips she spent on the Madonna jet. She went to South Africa. She 
was gone 10 days. She took 51 staffers, 58 guests, a total of 109 
people. Photographers were hired. They hired video crews to record the 
whole event. The cost to the American taxpayer, $560,000.

  Now, Vice President Gore has tried to defend Secretary O'Leary's 
travels, and he has said her trips have created thousands of American 
jobs and billions of dollars in contracts, so I think it should all be 
in perspective. Well, early in the year, when I was debating Secretary 
O'Leary on the MacNeil-Leher report, she stated she had produced $19.7 
billion in business contracts. Last month she revised that down to $10 
billion. Now we find out it is closer to $1.4 billion, and those are 
only signed letters of intent, not signed contracts. And a large part 
of that $1.4 billion is claimed by Secretary Brown. In fact, he is 
taking full credit.
  Well, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Hoke] and myself have requested a 
General Accounting Office audit to find out how this horrible waste can 
be accounted for. The material girl has spent millions of dollars in 
travel, but it does not stop there. Secretary O'Leary hired one of her 
personal friends, after laying off thousands of people, she hired her 
for a job title she created called the Department of Conflict 
Resolution Ombudsman at $93,166 per year plus $12,000 a year living 
expenses.
  We did not know about that part of the material girl when 80 of us 
called for her resignation. We thought that was bad enough, because at 
that point she had just hired a private investigative firm to develop 
an unfavorables list, for $56,500. A list of Congressmen and reporters 
that she could work on a little. That should have been enough, but even 
after the travel there is more.
  We have found out that the material girl has redirected $500,000 from 
the Department of Interior to the Government of India so that they can 
clean up the Taj Mahal before she arrived. A half a million dollars to 
clean up the Taj Mahal.
  Well, this is just the tip of the iceberg. This reflects the 
mismanagement that is going on within the Department of Energy. It is 
time to turn the lights out at the Department of Energy. It is time for 
Secretary O'Leary to resign.

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