[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 93 (Thursday, July 11, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H4528]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1700
                           WHERE'S THE MONEY?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Jeff Miller of Florida). Under a 
previous order of the House, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 
Jones) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take my 
time that I am allotted tonight to talk a little bit about the loss of 
$17.3 billion.
  On June 6 of this year I wrote a letter to the Secretary of the 
Treasury, and the reason that I wrote this letter is because I had been 
back in North Carolina during the break and I was listening to a talk 
show and they were quoting from the New York Post, and I want to read 
the first two paragraphs of this article.
  It says, May 28, 2002, Washington complains about deceptive corporate 
accounting, but the government last year misplaced an incredible $17.3 
billion because of shoddy bookkeeping or worse. Again, the article 
says, Let me put that into numbers so that you can fully appreciate the 
amount. It is $17.3 billion, the price of a few dozen urban renewal 
projects, a nice size fleet of warships or about half the tax cut that 
everyone made such a fuss about last year.
  In addition, the London Times also wrote an article on the fact that 
we in this Nation, that our accounting system for this government, that 
we have lost or misplaced $17.3 billion.
  I share with my colleagues on both sides of the political aisle my 
frustration and disgust with what happened with Enron and also with 
WorldCom, but I do want to make the point, Mr. Speaker, that as sad as 
that is, and it is terribly sad, that the investors had a choice to 
make an investment. The taxpayers do not have a choice. They are 
mandated by law to pay their taxes.
  So, therefore, we collect their taxes and yet in the year 2001, we 
have, and this is the term used, unreconciled transactions in the 
amount of $17.3 billion.
  So this is about my third or fourth week of coming to the floor, and 
I actually on June 6, I wrote Secretary O'Neill a letter, and I am just 
going to read two paragraphs. I said, The report provides minimal data 
and information regarding these unreconciled transactions. Not only is 
the Federal Government missing $17.3 billion but there is no reason 
given for this loss. While I appreciate the Department of Treasury's 
statement, the identification and accurate reporting of these 
unreconciled transactions is a priority. The fact remains, the public 
nor the Congress has the information on how this loss occurred, what 
agencies were responsible for this unreconciled transactional; would 
these transactions eventually be reconciled; if so, what is the time 
line for this reconciliation; what agency or agencies will be 
responsible for the reconciliation; will this reconciliation be 
available to the public when completed.
  Mr. Speaker, the reason I am down here on the floor, I realize the 
Secretary is a very busy man, but I did write this letter on June 6 of 
this year, and I have not received a response. I am going to give the 
Secretary the benefit of the doubt, that like many of us here in the 
Congress, we have wonderful assistants that sometimes get the mail and 
they go through the letters before we see them. So I am going to give 
him the benefit of the doubt. I did write on June 27 a letter to the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton), and I have asked that the 
oversight committee hold a hearing on this issue of where we have 
misplaced the $17.3 billion.
  Again, Mr. Speaker, I will continue to come to the floor. Next week, 
I will have a chart that I will hold up before me as I speak, reminding 
the American people that we in Congress, on both sides of the political 
aisle, want to find out where that $17.3 billion of the taxpayers' 
money has gone, and if it has been misspent or misplaced, somebody 
needs to answer for it.

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