[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 15, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E808-E809]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 1997

                                 ______


                               speech of

                      HON. WILLIAM H. ZELIFF, JR.

                            of new hampshire

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 14, 1996

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 3230) to 
     authorize appropriations for fiscal year 1997 for military 
     activities of the Department of Defense, to prescribe 
     military personnel strengths for fiscal year 1997, and for 
     other purposes:

  Mr. ZELIFF. Mr. Chairman, the amendment under discussion is being 
offered in response to the discovery, in late 1995 and early 1996, of 
serious mismanagement by the White House Communications Agency, and 
those who share responsibility for oversight of that agency, including 
the White House Military Office, headed by Mr. Alan Sullivan, and the 
White House Office of Administration and Management, headed by Jodie 
Torkelson.
  For those who do not know--and most do not know this--the White House 
Communications Agency is formally charged with providing 
telecommunications support to the President, and has existed since the 
late 1940's. However, today this once small office now spends more than 
$ 100 million annually and employs more than 900 persons.
  Recent mismanagement of this office has been significant, and 
necessitates serious reform. Findings and recommendations are detailed 
in two inspector general reports that were issued in November 1995 and 
April 1996. Chairman Clinger's committee, and this subcommittee, have 
been investigating this office for almost 2 years. And we are planning 
a hearing on Thursday, May 16 on this very issue.
  What we have now had confirmed to us, after extensive efforts by the 
White House last year to block any congressional oversight, is this.
  The White House Communications Agency, which is funded through the 
Defense Department's Information Systems Agency, has been unchecked and 
has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars between 1993 and 1995. White 
House personnel responsible for oversight

[[Page E809]]

have been asleep at the switch, and the Defense Information Systems 
Agency has been timid in questioning the White House practices.
  In particular, the IG's reports reveal that the White House 
Communications Agency budgets have been unreviewed; the White House 
Communications Agency annual performance plan has failed to meet 
Department of Defense standards; acquisition planning has been 
inadequate, and has included an unwillingness to put millions of 
dollars' worth of contracts out to bid, essentially ignoring Federal 
procurement law; wasteful purchases have been made, including the 
purchase in 1994 of a $4.9 million piece of mobile communications 
equipment that the White House now admits--and this is something out of 
the keystone cops--will not fit on the C-141 airplane that transports 
such equipment for the President, and was also made incompatible with 
most hotel electricity units; and the White House Communications Agency 
has also purchased goods and services without legal authority, and 
without binding contracts.

  In short, this has been a black hole, over at the White House, into 
which we have been pouring nearly $100 million annually without any 
executive branch oversight. It has also become a pot of money devoted 
to many things that have nothing to do with telecommunications or the 
President.
  For example, the White House deploys Department of Defense moneys to 
fund an elaborate frame shop in the basement of the White House, which 
frames any personal picture with the President or anything else a White 
House staffer brings in to be framed. It funds stenographic services, 
audiovisual services, photos, and emblems, podiums and other 
nontelecommunications expenditures.
  What this amendment would do is put an end to the broadranging 
mission creep that has occurred, and start us back toward a degree of 
accountability.
  Now, as a footnote to all this, I must say that I am also greatly 
disappointed in the White House, frankly. After learning of this level 
of mismanagement and waste, my subcommittee invited them--in 
particular, Mr. Sullivan, and Ms. Torkelson--who recently herself 
negotiated a memorandum of understanding permitting this broad 
mission--to testify before the subcommittee on Thursday.
  They were asked to respond to the IG's reports. They were asked 
because they are operational and have oversight responsibility--or have 
had until now. -Instead of complying, as has been the track record of 
this White House on other matters, they are declining to even appear.
  I will, therefore, once more ask them--before other measures are 
considered--to appear and testify on Thursday. In the meantime, I urge 
support for this narrowing amendment.

                          ____________________