[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 54 (Thursday, April 3, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H2708]
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 and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker, Boston's Big Dig and Virginia's Mixing Bowl 
are characterized by cost overruns and boggled timelines. The Big Dig 
in Boston has turned into one of our biggest boondoggles. The project 
which already costs more than twice as much as it did to build the 
Panama Canal was estimated in 1985 to cost $2.6 billion. Eighteen years 
later the project still is not completed and the costs are more than 
$14 billion and are expected to go to $18 billion. So also the cost 
projections for the Mixing Bowl have tripled with the latest estimate 
approaching $1 billion. Lax oversight and consistently low estimates of 
cost and money have also hampered the completion date which was slated 
for 2007. That slipped.
  These projects represent huge investments by State, local, and the 
Federal governments, and Americans have the right to expect Federal 
projects to be well managed and completed on time and on budget. 
Because the Federal Highway Administration has done little to stem the 
runaway spending on these two projects, it gets my ``porker of the 
week'' award.

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