[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 3 (Friday, January 5, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H324-H325]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ABOUT BALANCING THE BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Kim] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KIM. Mr. Speaker, in California time right now it is 7 o'clock, 
and I hope that many people from my district will turn on their TV and 
watch me tonight. I think people are tired of listening to all of this 
bashing each other about balancing the budget. I want to talk about 
some different perspective about this balancing the budget.
  The Government waste, that is what I would like to talk about 
tonight, the waste and fraud is everywhere, Medicare, Medicaid; you are 
talking about waste and fraud. It is unbelievable. Food stamps, my 
golly, they are buying at a discount rate, turning around and selling 
it, buying drugs. It is total wasting, all kinds of fraud going on.
  The EITC, that is supposed to help people who have children, 
dependents. Now what happens? They changed the law back in 1987. Now 
anybody can receive a cash payment from the Government, even prison 
inmates. Waste and fraud, just beyond control. Welfare, we all know 
that.
  Housing, my golly, we have got housing projects put together by a 
Federal agency. It is unbelievable. All the housing is empty right now 
and defaulted. It is just unbelievable waste and fraud going on.
  We have more than 9,000 Federal programs overlapping each other. 
Nobody knows who is doing what. Each time there is a problem, we 
allocate the money and set up another agency to take care of this 
certain sector of the people, and this is going on, I do not know how 
many years, last 40 years. ``You have got the problem? Come and see us, 
we have got a program for you.''
  Let me give you one bizarre story I read this morning in the 
Washington Post, Washington Times, and U.S.A. Today about the 
Department of Energy. It is a frightening story which I would like to 
share with you tonight and with the people of California.
  DOE, Department of Energy, was founded back in 1977 by Mr. Carter 
during this energy crisis. This is a temporary agency. Their job is to 
manage oil control, oil price control, and rationing; second 
responsibility is to find the energy alternative to oil, imported oil, 
because we are afraid that someday oil-producing nations will control 
us. That is all it is. It is a domestic issue. They have got to stay 
and do energy research and oil price control. That is what their job 
is.
  Today they have got 20,000 employees. They should have been gone a 
long time ago, 20,000 employees. What are they doing? Seventy percent 
of their money goes into weapons testing. Can you imagine, weapons 
testing? That should be done by DOD, Defense Department. Only 16 
percent of the money goes to R&D, development of energy. I mean, this 
is just really ridiculous.
  But let me tell you a real horror story. The agency Secretary, 
supposed to be in charge of the entire Department of Energy, she spent 
130 days 

[[Page H325]]
overseas, took 16 overseas trips, higher than any other Cabinet 
official except the Secretary of State. Let me tell you typical example 
of a trip she took, recent trip to South Africa. The agency Secretary 
took 51 staff members and 68 guests, 119 people. They chartered a 
luxury jet, which is often chartered by Madonna. It has a wet bar and 
all this. It cost the taxpayers $560,000.
  Next trip, to India, she took 63 staff members and 72 guests, mostly 
from environmental groups. It cost taxpayers $720,000.

  Next trip, to China, cost you and I $845,000.
  Trip to Pakistan was $500,000.
  Adding this together, 4 out of 16 trips cost taxpayers $2.6 million. 
My God, is that not something?
  But two trips alone, India and South Africa, they have 1,600 pages of 
expenses and a quarter million dollars missing. They could not find 
where they spent it.
  Now, this is the kind of stuff going on. This is the typical example 
of Government waste and fraud before our eyes, and here we are talking 
balancing the budget.
  The question is: Why is it? Why spend so much money, 130 days and 16 
trips? why is that? Well, they said, ``We are going to get some 
contracts.'' Today's paper says that is not true. They did not get any 
contracts whatsoever.
   It is really embarrassing, and I think if she curtails the trips, we 
could balance the budget easily.

                          ____________________