[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 123 (Wednesday, September 28, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H8487]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                IRAQ AND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S GREED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, for the last 2 years, Halliburton and 
subsidiaries such as Kellogg, Brown, and Root, have received billions 
of dollars in contracts to rebuild Iraq. Despite the handsome profits, 
Halliburton, which used to be run by the Vice President, Dick Cheney, 
has not had to offer competitive bids on the vast majority of these 
projects. Earlier this week a Halliburton subsidiary received yet 
another no-bid contract for reconstruction efforts.
  This should not come as a surprise to anyone, anyone who has 
monitored the greed, the selfishness, the sheer corruption with which 
the Bush administration has administered Iraq's reconstruction. Only 
this time, the contract was not for Iraq, it was for hurricane relief 
and reconstruction efforts here in the United States. Finally, the 
chickens have come to roost.
  Mr. Speaker, my colleagues might recall that Halliburton is the 
company that overcharged the United States Government for meals served 
to soldiers serving in Iraq. It is also the company that made the 
United States Government pay a ridiculous markup on gasoline purchased 
from nearby Kuwait. Unfortunately, the Bush administration did not seem 
to mind. Halliburton's corruption certainly did not stop the White 
House from turning to them yet again as its primary source for no-bid 
government contracts in the Gulf.
  But the sad truth is, these examples of corruption and incompetence 
are not just isolated to Halliburton. They are emblematic of the Bush 
administration itself.
  This is the administration that presided over $9 billion in missing 
funds that was supposed to pay for Iraq's reconstruction. This is the 
administration that, for over a year, neglected to provide the 
lifesaving protective body armor that our troops needed to survive. 
These examples are not isolated. No, they are indicative of how the 
Bush administration has approached both the war in Iraq and the recent 
hurricane devastation in the gulf coast.
  The sheer ineptitude surrounding the war in Iraq has been the most 
staggering of all. The Bush administration had no plan for how to 
conduct the war, they had no plan for securing the country once Saddam 
was deposed, and now they have no plan for ending the war.
  It is clear that the military situation in Iraq is not improving. In 
fact, it is the very presence of nearly 150,000 U.S. soldiers who 
appear as occupiers that so enrages Iraq's insurgency.

                              {time}  1845

  By bringing our troops home, we can save both American and Iraqi 
lives, and we can reunite thousands of American families in the 
process. That is why I have called on the House Committee on Armed 
Services and the Committee on International Relations to hold hearings 
to address how best to achieve a military disengagement. Since they 
will not address this issue, we will.
  Two weeks ago, I held an informal bipartisan hearing to address how 
to end the war in Iraq. Not when, but how. We heard from an expert 
panel of witnesses who each testified that the need for a change in 
U.S. policy is absolute in Iraq. This is not about finding the one 
right approach. It is about getting the conversation started. It is 
about putting all the ideas on the table.
  Mr. Speaker, my hope is that last week's hearing will help begin a 
discussion that we desperately need, one that is long overdue, one that 
will help save lives, how to end the war in Iraq, and how to bring our 
troops home.

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