[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 29 (Thursday, February 15, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S2030]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. DORGAN (for himself, Mr. Bayh, Mr. Bingaman, Mrs. Boxer, 
        Mr. Brown, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Conrad, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Feingold, 
        Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Harkin, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Kerry, Ms. 
        Landrieu, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Menendez, Ms. 
        Mikulski, Mr. Nelson of Florida, Mr. Obama, Mr. Pryor, Mr. 
        Reid, and Mr. Wyden):
  S. 606. A bill to improve Federal contracting and procurement by 
eliminating fraud and abuse and improving competition in contracting 
and procurement and by enhancing administration of Federal contracting 
personnel, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Homeland 
Security and Governmental Affairs.
  Mr. LEAHY. I am proud to cosponsor this bill, which will create new 
and better tools to combat fraud, waste, and abuse in government 
contracting. I commend our chief sponsor, Senator Byron Dorgan, for his 
leadership on this.
  Waste, fraud, and abuse in the name of defense is destructive and 
offensive, and it should never be tolerated. It saps critical resources 
needed by our troops, and it plays the taxpayers for fools, all the 
while hiding under the cover of national defense.
  Within the last few weeks, the Special Inspector General for Iraq 
Reconstruction has reported that the problems of waste, fraud, and 
abuse continue to plague our reconstruction efforts in Iraq, and 
billions of dollars are unaccounted for, and possibly lost, to fraud 
and waste. So far, the Inspector General has initiated more than 100 
investigations into this fraud and abuse, but to date the Department of 
Justice has prosecuted just a few individuals for wrongdoing. The 
Department has yet to prosecute any of the contracting companies or 
their senior officials for fraud.
  This legislative reform package establishes new criminal penalties 
for war profiteers and cheats who, for ill-gotten gain, would exploit 
the chaos of war. I recently introduced the War Profiteering Prevention 
Act of 2007, and I am pleased that Senator Dorgan has included this 
legislation in the Honest Leadership and Accountability in Contracting 
Act.
  This legislation also promotes openness and fairness in contracting, 
and it includes safeguards to end cronyism and eliminate conflicts of 
interest in contracting decisions. It also strengthens the Federal 
protections afforded to whistleblowers who alert the public to contract 
fraud and misconduct.
  We have introduced antiwar profiteering legislation in the past, but 
the Republican-led Congress has repeatedly refused to pass it. While 
Congress has waited to act, we have learned that private contractors 
have stolen and defrauded, by some estimates, hundreds of millions of 
dollars from money that should have supported our troops in Iraq and 
Afghanistan. The time to stop these shameful acts is now, and Congress 
should act swiftly to enact this vital legislation.
  I will continue my efforts on this issue as chairman of the Judiciary 
Committee. In particular, I plan to hold a hearing next month on the 
war profiteering bill.
  Every penny of our taxpayers' money must be protected from waste, and 
Federal contracts--which are paid for with taxpayer funds--should be 
open and transparent. This is an accountability bill, and taxpayers 
deserve this to be one of our highest priorities.
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