[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 28 (Tuesday, March 5, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H1702-H1703]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND SECRETARY OF ENERGY MUST ACCOUNT FOR WASTED 
                                 MONEY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Quinn). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Tiahrt] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, this country and this legislative body and 
the administration have been struggling to achieve a balanced budget. 
The people really do not understand this problem, and, frankly, I do 
not either.
  The working Americans balance their checking accounts monthly. I 
cannot think of a business in Kansas, where I am the Fourth District 
Congressman, or a nonprofit organization or an individual that has not 
balanced their budget over the last 26 years, nowhere except right here 
in the Federal Government.
  This Congress has also been striving to be a House of the people, 
bringing common sense from the common people back to Government. But we 
have had many obstacles in achieving that.
  The administration has submitted multiple budgets that did not 
balance. The President personally lobbied against the balanced budget 
amendment, which passed in the House and failed by only one vote in the 
U.S. Senate, and the President, in his last budget, which was scored as 
a balanced budget by the CBO, has 95 percent of the savings in the last 
2 years, which would be after his administration, assuming that he 
would be successful next November.
  Perhaps the most confusing, though, is how the President condones 
actions that are directly in opposition to achieving a balanced budget. 
I am speaking of the waste and the abuse and the potentially fraudulent 
activity that have been occurring in the Department of Commerce and the 
Department of Energy. The President's Secretary of Commerce, Secretary 
Ron Brown, has allowed the excessive issuance of Government credit 
cards; for example, half of the employees at the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Agency, NOAA, as it is called, have been issued Government 
credit cards. Even nongovernment employees have been issued Government 
credit cards. Reportedly, there have been 600 instances where they have 
taken Government credit cards and used an automatic teller to receive 
cash, cash benefits, unaccountable for. I wonder how long do people 
like Tim Schwilling, who works at the Boeing Co. delivering parts, or 
Craig Faroh, who works for Sedgwick County, how long do they have to 
work to pay in tax to the Federal Government to just have it taken out 
in cash benefits, unaccounted for?
  There is Mr. Clinton's Secretary of Energy, Secretary O'Leary, who 
has been known for her excessive travel. Some call her a congenital 
flyer, over

[[Page H1703]]

100 domestic trips, 16 overseas trips. The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. 
Hoke] and myself asked for a General Accounting Office audit of two 
overseas trips, South Africa and India, and the GAO found out Secretary 
O'Leary could not account for $255,000 of taxpayers' money, a quarter 
of a million dollars. We have called for her resignation.
  This Congress has wanted accountability from the administration, 
accountability to the people, because it is the people's money.
  It is known that the President has opposed a balanced budget during 
his administration. You cannot balance the budget when the presidential 
appointees, like Secretary Brown and Secretary O'Leary, waste 
taxpayers' dollars and remain unaccountable for their actions.
  I ask for the President to ask them to account for the money that has 
been wasted and resign from their office.

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