[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 53 (Friday, May 5, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E739-E740]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HURRICANE KATRINA STATEMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 4, 2006

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, on May 4, 2006, I prepared the following 
opening statement for the Committee on Government Reform's hearing, 
``Sifting Through Katrina's Legal Debris: Contracting in the Eye of the 
Storm'':
  Thank you, Chairman Davis, for holding this important oversight 
hearing to examine federal contracting for Hurricane Katrina relief. I 
appreciate that you have kept your promise to hold a series of hearings 
on the subject of Hurricane Katrina as you said you would in September 
of last year. I am grateful for your leadership in this regard.
  Since this Administration has come into office, we have witnessed 
multiple federal contracting sprees, which have all been reckless and 
wasteful. After 9/11, and the establishment of the Department of 
Homeland Security, a variety of security functions were contracted out 
to private companies. The Iraq war and reconstruction brought the next 
round of federal contracts, and finally, after Hurricane Katrina, 
several contracts were administered to aid in relief and 
reconstruction.
  Contracts awarded have consistently been cost-plus and no bid 
contracts, have lacked oversight and transparency, and have led to 
costly waste, fraud and abuse.
  Despite the waste, fraud and abuse, which have been well documented 
by government oversight bodies, including this Committee, the federal 
government has refused to learn its lesson and change its contracting 
practices. The contracts handed out for Katrina relief and 
reconstruction were just as flawed as those for Homeland Security 
functions and Iraq reconstruction.
  Halliburton, for example, which has been the target of investigations 
for robbing the American taxpayer blind in its Iraq contracts, was one 
of the first companies awarded no bid contracts after Katrina hit the 
Gulf Coast, to repair 3 different Navy facilities in Mississippi.
  Furthermore, measures put forward immediately following Hurricane 
Katrina to help ensure proper contracting, such as Ranking Member 
Waxman's bill, the ``Hurricane Katrina Accountability and Clean 
Contracting Act,'' were disregarded.
  Now, eight months later--eight months too late--we are here in this 
Committee examining what went wrong. Our government should have known 
better.
  Today's hearing will reveal how FEMA, the U.S. Army Corps of 
Engineers, and other federal agencies entered into at least eight major 
contracts, worth over $5.6 billion, that have resulted in significant 
waste, fraud and abuse.
  We will also hear some familiar testimony: how full and open 
competition has been the exception, not the rule, in awarding Katrina 
contacts; how lack of contract management and oversight were missing in 
Katrina contracts; and how these flawed contracting procedures lead to 
significant cost or performance problems in nearly every major contract 
related to Hurricane Katrina.
  Far too much taxpayer money has been squandered on important jobs 
that aren't getting done. I look forward to the testimonials

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from the witnesses today. Despite the federal government's record, it 
is my sincere hope that this hearing will lead to concrete reforms in 
contracting practices.

                          ____________________