[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 147 (Monday, October 20, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H9709]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       WASHINGTON WASTE WATCHERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I, once again, want to 
speak a little bit on the cause the Washington Waste Watchers is trying 
to get done and that is to highlight and try to get rid of some of the 
everlasting waste in the Federal Government, waste of the taxpayer's 
money that the Federal Government seems so apt at doing so well.
  Mr. Speaker, for example, the postal service managers received over 
$500 million in incentive awards for allegedly improving financial 
performance when, in fact, all indicators showed at the same time that 
the financial performance had actually declined. And, yet, we still 
gave that $500 million because of the performance which, again, the 
same performance had declined.
  The examples are just never-ending. For example, the EPA had no 
knowledge whatsoever of the work that a certain EPA applicant was going 
to perform, but still awarded that same applicant with a $700,000 grant 
even though it did not know what it was for, Mr. Speaker.
  HUD paid the full amount of $227,000, Mr. Speaker, for a project even 
though that same project that it was paying for, the full project, one-
third of the project had only been completed. And, yet, the entire sum 
went out.
  Again, no accountability whatsoever. And nothing seems to happen.
  The public housing authority in Bridgeport, Connecticut, received an 
extra $750,000 in operating subsidies during the year 2000, while 
incurring $300,000, Mr. Speaker, in unnecessary utility expenses for 
units that had been vacant for years. Again, these are not new issues.
  And, yet, the Democrats, Mr. Speaker, still insist on trying to raise 
the taxes of the hard-working American people to do more of this.
  You see, Mr. Speaker, the Federal Government has grown at an 
uncontrollable size. And the Democrats insist on raising the taxes on 
the hard-working Americans to do more of this, of throwing good money 
after bad and bad money after good and good money after bad. Because it 
is not once, it is over and over and over. And their solution, Mr. 
Speaker, is it is not a problem, there is more money where that comes 
from.
  The American people will take more money out of their hard-earned 
dollars, take it out of their pockets, send it to D.C. so D.C. can 
continue to do what it has done year after year after year.
  I am encouraged, Mr. Speaker, by the President's new initiative to 
try to curtail this. But let me tell my colleagues what I am a little 
bit discouraged about, Mr. Speaker. The Federal Government loses almost 
$20 billion before it can even waste it. When the gentleman from Iowa 
(Mr. Nussle), the chairman of the Committee on the Budget, had an 
amendment in the committee after we see the amount of money that is 
wasted, he said let's cut 1 percent, just 1 percent on waste, fraud and 
abuse. Mr. Speaker, how many votes were there from our distinguished 
friends of the Democratic party for the motion of the chairman of the 
Committee on the Budget to cut just 1 percent of waste, fraud and 
abuse? Zero. Not one. Because, again, they believe in raising taxes.
  Take the money from the hard-working American people. They all keep 
sending it up here so they can come up and the money can come up here 
and the Federal Government can continue to waste it.
  Mr. Speaker, again I will continue to highlight this waste. I am 
going to continue to thank the President for the initiatives that he 
has taken to change this, and we are going to continue to highlight it. 
And we have already filed some legislation, and we are going to file 
more legislation in order to try to change this culture of spending and 
of misspending to the culture of fiscal responsibility.
  In the meantime, I would ask my friends in the other party to change 
their attitude from just asking for more money, for asking for more 
taxes and increases in taxes, and help us change this attitude that the 
President is trying to change, and we are going to continue to try to 
change.

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