[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 37 (Wednesday, March 29, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H1201]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H1201]]
                     REPUBLICAN OVERSIGHT FAILURES

  (Mrs. CHRISTENSEN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, since the beginning of the Iraq war, 
House Republicans have rubber-stamped every war supplemental the 
President has sent to Congress with very few questions about how the 
money is being spent.
  House Democrats have repeatedly tried to get Republicans to join us 
in supporting the creation of a select committee to investigate 
government contracting.
  The committee would be similar to the Truman Committee during World 
War II, which, under Democratic Senator Harry Truman's leadership, held 
hundreds of hearings and fact-finding missions into contracts approved 
by the Democratic Roosevelt administration.
  Truman did not see this as a partisan issue, and said, unlike 
Republicans today, he took his oversight responsibilities seriously.
  The Truman investigation saved the American taxpayer an estimated $15 
billion. Just think how much money we could save the American taxpayer 
today. Under Halliburton's two largest Iraq contracts, Pentagon 
auditors found $1 billion in questioned costs and $400 million in 
unsupported costs, and these discoveries are from Pentagon auditors.
  Just think what we could discover from a real congressional 
investigation. It is time for the Republican rubber-stamping to end.

                          ____________________