[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 150 (Friday, October 31, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H9804]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      ``PORKER OF THE WEEK'' AWARD

  (Mr. HEFLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker, those redesigned $50 bills are hot off the 
Bureau of Printing and Engraving presses. But what are we going to do 
with the more than $217 million in printing errors? That is right, many 
bills were rejected by the Federal Reserve because the fine concentric 
lines surrounding the portrait of Ulysses S. Grant were broken. This 
may seem like a minor flaw to some, but it is a major problem because 
the Treasury spent $15 million on an international education campaign 
touting the lines as a special feature added to thwart counterfeiters.
  Most likely the only option for the Treasury Department is to destroy 
the flawed notes and start over. This will cost the taxpayers at least 
$16.3 million, $8.7 million for the misprinted bills, $360,000 to 
destroy them, and $7.2 million to reprint them.
  If that is not bad enough, the Bureau of Printing and Engraving most 
recently purchased $50 million in printing equipment that it did not 
install in its Washington facility because they would have to have 
major renovation at that facility.
  The Bureau of Printing and Engraving gets my ``Porker of the Week'' 
award.

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