[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 14, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H2559-H2565]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN GOVERNMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Perlmutter). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 18, 2007, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. 
Sutton) is recognized for 60 minutes.
  Ms. SUTTON. Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to be here today with some of 
the other Members who were newly elected just a few months ago. And, 
boy, it was a few months ago, but we have been making strides. And we 
are here to report to the American people the steps that we have taken 
to increase the oversight and accountability of this government.
  I am sure that, like many of my colleagues who were elected, one of 
the reasons I am here, I came to Congress to clean up the culture of 
corruption that had so flourished under the Republican leadership in 
previous Congresses. And to that end, on the very first day that I was 
here, it was my honor to proudly cast a vote to end an era of 
corruption in this Capitol and to begin to change the way this Congress 
is doing business. To make it such that this Congress begins to enact 
policies that benefit the American people rather than just the special 
interests and the privileged few.
  We took aim at the corruption and the abuses because it was a 
necessary prerequisite to creating policies that benefit all Americans. 
And people were tired. People were tired back in Ohio.
  I have the privilege to represent people who are the salt of the 
Earth. But we saw both at the State level and the Federal level scandal 
after scandal. Scandals of public officials being bought off by special 
interests, public officials abusing power, and Republican leadership 
and officials neglecting to provide oversight.
  Democrats, in the very first hours of this new Congress, they severed 
the links between those who would buy influence on Capitol Hill and 
those who would, unfortunately, willingly sell it and create and 
facilitate this culture of corruption that the American people have had 
to suffer under. We acted to clean up that corruption that eroded the 
public trust and resulted in far too many policies, as I said, that 
just benefited the few at the expense of the many.
  We have begun and we have continued to restore oversight and 
accountability since that first day in our government through hearings 
and greater transparency, through initiatives that we have enacted and 
we continue to enact. And this strong congressional oversight in the 
110th Congress has dramatically reversed years of neglect of the 
constitutional role of the Congress in providing oversight of Federal 
activities.
  The American people have had enough. They have suffered enough from 
the lack of oversight. And I am so happy to be here with my new 
colleagues in this role to clean it up.
  Just to name a couple of things, and then I am going to pass it off 
to some of my freshmen colleagues, but if we just go through a list and 
you can pick up on any of these subjects because, sadly, there are so 
many areas where the past Congress had been delinquent, and we have 
already had to move to act.
  The war in Iraq, between the House and the Senate since we took the 
leadership in this body, since we became the majority under the 
leadership of Speaker  Nancy Pelosi, there have been more than 97 
oversight hearings that have looked into the conduct of the Iraq War. 
And certainly that was something that the American people made loud and 
clear, when they elected this new majority, that they desired.
  And, sadly, in the wake of revelations of inadequate care and 
conditions for wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 
both the House and the Senate have launched investigations and hearings 
into those matters.
  We are also looking at the political ramifications of actions taken 
with U.S. attorneys and the linkage of improper phone calls from 
Republican Members of Congress and senior staff that forced 
resignations of those U.S. attorneys.
  The Hurricane Katrina response, we heard a lot right after the 
hurricane, after we saw the tragedy, not just the natural tragedy, but 
the tragedy in the lack of response of this government; and we heard a 
lot about how we were going to take that seriously from the last 
Congress. And now, because they didn't do that, we have been called 
upon and we have answered and House committees are looking into the 
housing and health care crisis that persists after that bungled 
response to the gulf coast disaster.
  And we are also looking at and addressing the many aspects of the 
climate crisis and our dependence on nonrenewable fuels from foreign 
sources. Investigations, hearings, initiatives that are long overdue. 
And, of course, there are many, many upcoming hearings.
  And at this point what I would like to do is, I would like to yield 
to my friend from Minnesota, Representative Ellison, to hear what you 
think about some of these things that we have been doing in this new 
Congress.
  Mr. ELLISON. Congresswoman Sutton, it is a great honor to be here 
with you tonight together with our other colleagues in the freshman 
class who will be speaking in just a moment because I think it is 
important that the American people know that the freshman members of 
the Democratic Caucus came to this Congress, not to occupy space, not 
to warm a seat, but to create positive change for the American people, 
to project a vision, a vision of inclusion, of a generosity of 
fairness, a vision that says that this economy should be one where 
everybody can be successful.
  This government should be one where everyone has access, not just 
lobbyists

[[Page H2560]]

and the privileged few, a system of government that people can feel 
proud of and not have to be worried that privileged individuals might 
be lining their pockets at the expense of the American people.
  We came here on November 7. We were elected here by the American 
people because the American people, the finest people, have the right 
to feel good about their government, not cynical, not despondent, not 
despairing, but good and positive, who would say, Do you know what? I 
trust my government. I feel that my government is doing the right 
thing. We can do no less than to take up that charge.
  We have to say the American people have a right to feel that their 
government is operating for the public good and in their best 
interests. And to that end, I am proud to be associated with this 
Democratic majority that from the very beginning began to signal change 
with the 100 hours program. The 100 hours program is not all that we 
are going to do, but, Mr. Speaker, we had to tell the American people 
that we are about business from the very beginning. We had to signal 
change from the very beginning.
  We had to let them know that we care about the affordability of a 
college education by cutting student loan interest rates; we care about 
our seniors by making sure that we get a prescription drug benefit that 
actually helps our seniors by allowing Medicare to negotiate.
  We did a 100 hours program that said, we are going to raise the 
minimum wage; we are going to stop the oil and gas subsidies and put 
the money into renewable energy. We had to signal change.
  That is not all we are going to do. We are just getting started. But 
we had to do something soon, something quick, something early, in the 
very beginning, so that the American people will know that we are 
putting money on the table. This is an earnest commitment to the 
American people to do real government, real change that they can feel 
good about.
  So what I want to talk about very briefly tonight is how important it 
is and how happy I am that the Democratic Congress has taken steps 
regarding this scandal about the U.S. attorneys. The United States 
attorneys are members of our government under the executive branch 
whose job it is to do good, to promote justice. They are ministers of 
justice. They are not just lawyers who are entitled to advocate for 
their clients. Their job is higher. Their job is to do the right thing. 
Neither fear nor favor should influence them. Neither concern about 
their job nor worry about who is not going to like it should influence 
their behavior. They should enforce the law and protect the American 
people.
  So when it came to light that U.S. attorneys that had had good 
recommendations, eight of them, were summarily fired with no 
explanation, and then when the explanations did come, their reputations 
were besmirched--they said that they were not good workers, that they 
were not good employees of the State, not carrying out an excellent 
mission for the people of the districts that they were charged to 
represent--I think people started getting a little nervous. Wait a 
minute. Why besmirch these people? Why put them down? What have they 
done that was wrong?
  And what we began to find as the common thread between these U.S. 
attorneys is that these individuals, though Republican appointees, took 
their charge to promote respect for law and took their charge to 
protect the American people seriously. And some of them prosecuted 
corruption cases, and that brought them into disfavor with the 
administration.

                              {time}  2045

  As the facts just keep on leaking out, they don't look good. They 
don't look good. It appears, it appears that political decisions were 
brought to bear in this scandal with regard to the U.S. Attorneys. In 
fact, one of the U.S. Attorneys was one of the people who prosecuted 
Mr. Duke Cunningham, and somehow ended up getting fired. My goodness. 
Don't we want to get rid of corruption in government? Don't we want a 
clean government? Why would you bring the hammer on somebody who did 
that, unless you didn't necessarily want the even hand of the law to be 
applied, you wanted it to be tilted one way or another. Justice must be 
blind, Mr. Speaker.
  Then what else did we see? One of the calls that was made from as 
high as the White House was that these folks are not going after 
immigration cases or going after voter fraud cases enough. Wait a 
minute. Doesn't the prosecutor make decisions? Isn't prosecutorial 
discretion a hallmark of our legal system? Wait a minute. These people 
are charged with protecting us from drug dealers, killers, bank robbers 
and people who commit acts of terrorism.
  These people are charged with protecting us from defrauders, 
stealers, thieves, embezzlers, and yet somebody on a political basis is 
trying to force them to focus in one area or another? They have finite 
resources to prosecute the cases and protect the people. They have to 
make a determination as to what is most important to protect our 
seniors from identity thieves, to protect our neighborhoods from drug 
dealers and meth makers. And yet they were put under scrutiny and 
fired, it appears, and the evidence is still coming in, because they 
wouldn't play ball with people in the administration.
  This is scary business. This is not a good thing. And it goes to the 
very heart of restoring accountability to Washington. It goes to the 
very soul of whether we have a fair justice system and whether justice 
is blind.
  Mr. Speaker, I am very concerned about that, and I want to urge the 
American people to continue to insist that all the facts come out. We 
have to know. Justice must be served, and it must be served with these 
U.S. Attorneys, because if the people whose job it is, the ministers of 
justice, cannot be comfortable in doing their work, then what can the 
rest of us who need their services expect?
  Let me just make one point, and this has to do with the questions 
around the prosecution of Mr. Scooter Libby. He was found guilty of 
four out of five counts just last week, and we hear there are linkages 
to the Vice President. We hear many people are calling him a ``fall 
guy,'' signaling there may be more people involved.
  I think that it is very important that if we are going to insist upon 
accountability in Washington, that there be no pardons. I am very 
concerned that there could be a pardon in this situation that would 
render him not willing to tell all that he knows.
  We need to know how bad this thing is. In the U.S. Attorney issue we 
found out it was Harriet Miers, the very person the President wanted to 
be on the United States Supreme Court, who said fire them all.
  It is very important we get to the bottom of this, because, as I 
started with, the American people have every right to know what their 
government is doing and to trust in and feel good about their 
government. It is not a question of public relations, it is a matter of 
substance.
  So I will yield back to my colleague, Congresswoman Betty Sutton, who 
has been leading us in so many excellent ways, who has been doing such 
a fine job, and with whom I am so honored to be associated in this 
Congress. We have other excellent Members joining us tonight and they 
are going to tell the story. I just want to say I am proud to be 
associated with these majority makers, these difference makers, these 
people who believe that the American people have a right to believe in 
their government, and the only way to do it is to restore 
accountability to Washington.
  Ms. SUTTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from 
Minnesota, and I thank him for his service on the Judiciary Committee. 
I think it is with heartfelt appreciation, not only on behalf of 
myself, but on behalf of the people that I represent, that I am 
grateful that you sit on the Judiciary Committee, where you are going 
to provide the oversight and the accountability on the issues that you 
brought forward here tonight.
  You are right, that there is nothing more important than restoring 
the trust of the people we represent in this government. And it is not 
the end in and of itself, but it is essential, to both the substance 
and the spirit of what we do. The corruption has hurt the American 
people in so many ways. So this oversight and accountability is sorely 
needed, long overdue.
  With that, I would like to recognize another distinguished gentleman 
from

[[Page H2561]]

the State of Minnesota who we are honored to have join us this evening, 
a new Member of Congress, somebody who came here to change the 
direction of this country, to take us in a new and positive, honest 
direction, Mr. Tim Walz. What do you think about all this?
  Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. First of all, I thank the gentlewoman. I thank 
you for your leadership. I thank you for your optimism. I thank you for 
your service to our country and all of our colleagues here.
  Every time we come and stand on this floor, it is an overwhelming 
feeling. It is an overwhelming sense of the greatness of this Nation, 
as well as the responsibility that goes with standing here. Each and 
every one of us represents over 600,000 Americans. Their hopes and 
dreams rest on what we do in this building. This is the most serious 
task we can ever undertake.
  As we talk about restoring accountability and restoring trust, 
nothing is more important. Nothing shapes this Nation more than what we 
do here. And as we reflect the great values that have made America the 
country that it is, we need to make sure that it is being done in the 
way that the Americans want it to be done. They don't care about the 
partisan ideology. What they care about is results.
  I hear a lot of talk that actions are what matter. I watched for the 
last hour as our friends talked about a very important subject across 
the aisle before we came on. They talked about fiscal responsibility. 
They are absolutely right, that is something that must be restored. 
This Nation's hopes and dreams and the investments we make in our 
children and grandchildren are going to be largely determined by how we 
handle the fiscal responsibility put on us.
  The only thing I find curious about the discussion is that our 
friends are so convinced that nothing works in here they seem to have 
forgotten to mention that they have been the majority party for 12 
years. They seem to have forgotten to mention that they had the 
executive branch for the last 6 years and both branches of Congress.
  During that time, we saw record surpluses turn into record deficits. 
We now have a $9 trillion national debt. We have seen the largest 
growth in government in a generation. And we have seen services 
provided to the people shrink and fees increase.
  So I guess, coming from a high school classroom, sometimes I said it 
is always very important, those actions matter. Everyone wants to do 
well and everybody wants to talk about it, but what happens in here 
truly matters.
  We have seen the culture of corruption. What I call it is the 
permanent vacation that Congress was on. Most people realize that the 
past Congress worked the fewest number of days since the do-nothing 
Congress of 1948. While we were passing the 100-hour agenda and the 
things you heard from our friend from Minnesota, all of the things that 
we accomplished, the previous Congress met for one day in January of 
2006.
  There is a stark contrast here. You are absolutely right. We were 
sent to this floor to do the people's bidding, not in a partisan manner 
but in a way that was open, accountable, transparent and actually got 
the results that we were looking for.
  I wanted the opportunity tonight to come here and illustrate a couple 
of things how we are doing business differently, how things have 
changed in Congress and how these things are tangible, and I am going 
to bring a couple of these that are very near and dear to my heart.
  One is about a project back in my district, if I could, 
Congresswoman, illustrate this just for the people. I will give a 
little background on it. Because this project had the potential to be 
the single largest taxpayer loan to a private entity in the history of 
this Nation, and most people, even in my district, until it was brought 
to light, knew almost nothing about it.
  There was a railroad that came from outside the State of Minnesota 
that was planning on doing that was very important, building rail 
infrastructure. All of us agree in southern Minnesota that it is 
needed. We need to move our commodities to market, we have a burgeoning 
ethanol industry that needs to move our product, and we also have the 
need to move coal and other commodities on this railroad.
  Well, this railroad tried for nearly a decade to try and secure 
private financing for this project. It failed to do so. Late in 2005, a 
program to give loans to railroads all of a sudden found an extra $32 
billion in this program. It was written in by a Senator in the middle 
of the night in conference committee with specific parameters that 
would only apply to this railroad to get this loan.
  This was done in the dark of night. The finances were kept private 
and out of the public eye, and the decision was going to be made after 
that conference committee by a set of appointed officials at the 
Department of Transportation.
  Now, that in itself is bad enough in the culture of corruption. But 
it gets worse. Nine months prior to that Senator writing that in there, 
that Senator was a paid lobbyist, and as hard as it is to believe, for 
that very railroad. He is elected to the Senate and he puts this in 
here.
  No one is doubting that we need rail. What this situation did and 
what it illustrated perfectly was when government is done badly, no 
matter what the intention was, it starts a domino effect of distrust 
and bad decisions.
  This railroad was going to increase rail traffic up to 36 coal trains 
a day possibly, one mile long, and it was going to run by the single 
largest private employer already in my district, 210 feet away. That 
private employer was the world famous Mayo Clinic. Decisions were not 
allowed for mitigation, decisions were not allowed to make sure the 
impact and the safety of the thousands of patients that traveled were 
addressed. This was a case of special interest and their lobbying 
friends allowing something to happen that the people of the district 
had very little say in.
  I was told all along, it is the railroad and it is the way it is. 
There is nothing you can do. They are going to be approved for the loan 
and they are going to start building.
  My question was that I refused to believe that this body would allow 
that to happen. I refused to believe that the public's elected official 
for their district would not have the opportunity to see the financial 
situation of the railroad, as well as the safety, which, by the way, 
ranked 43 out of 44 in safety, with one being the best.
  So upon coming to Congress in January, working bipartisanly across 
the aisle with our friends, I put forward a bill that would ask that 
this be evaluated for credit, that this be looked at and see what the 
finances were, and see if the American people's money was being put at 
risk.
  To put this into context, when Chrysler needed to receive a 
government loan to stay afloat in the early 1980s, this loan was over 
twice as big than that. That loan for Chrysler was debated for 3 weeks 
on the floor openly before it was finally voted on and strict 
requirements for its payback put into place.
  Well, I am happy to say that the Federal Railroad Administration and 
the Department of Transportation looked at those finances again and 
determined that this was not creditworthy and was not worthy of a risk 
to the American taxpayers.
  Now, to ensure that this never happens again, we have taken it one 
step further and passed a bill that Congress must cosign. If we ever 
try and do this again with $1 billion or more of taxpayer money on a 
Department of Transportation loan, it is going to come in front of this 
body and we are going to get a vote and we are going to ask the 
questions. Is there a need for public investment into our 
infrastructure? Absolutely. Is there a need for expanded rail travel? 
Absolutely. Is there a right of private business to come to the 
government looking for some help so that they can build that 
infrastructure and profit? Absolutely. But it must be done in the light 
of day. It must be done with the approval of the American people's 
elected representative so that they can have the ability to decide if 
it was right or if it was wrong, and they will decide that in the way 
they vote in 2 years.
  So, within 2 months, this Congress is starting to take those 
responsibilities. They are starting to ask those questions and we are 
starting to see progress. I can absolutely assure you, and I may never 
be able to prove this,

[[Page H2562]]

but I had to think had there not been a change to Congress, had there 
not been a new focus on trust and accountability and a new way of doing 
business, we maybe would have never seen the light of day on this.
  So the people are served well, we have the people's interests at 
heart, and now we can move forward with a much more responsible plan.
  So I applaud the Congresswoman for bringing us together. I know we 
each have several more opportunities to illustrate these. But I hope 
this one shows the American people, this is not a partisan issue. This 
is common sense. This is right and wrong. And I applaud those Members 
on the other side of the aisle that came to us and said, you are 
absolutely right, this is the way it should be done.
  I yield back to the gentlewoman.
  Ms. SUTTON. I thank the distinguished gentleman from Minnesota, and I 
thank you for your leadership, and for that example of how public 
policy can work for the people, that it doesn't have to be the way that 
it has been. You point out an important point.

                              {time}  2100

  In the first 100 hours, when we took steps to clean up some of the 
unfortunate practices that have happened in the past and to change some 
of the resulting policies or the failure to enact some good policies, 
when we actually brought those measures to the floor under this new 
Democratic leadership, we did enjoy broad bipartisan support for many 
of those measures.
  This is not just a Democratic agenda, this is about the people's 
agenda. That is what this House is about. I am glad, with the 
leadership we have, we are now getting the people's agenda on this 
floor so that people from both parties have the chance to deliver the 
kind of public policy that will help the people they are sent here to 
serve.
  At this point, I would like to yield to a new Member in this 
Congress, a tremendous leader, a woman who has shown unwavering 
dedication and commitment to the people she was sent here to serve, 
Representative Shea-Porter from the State of New Hampshire.
  Ms. SHEA-PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I was interested in hearing from 
Members on the other side speak about the money we needed to save and 
the debt we have, because it was the Republican administration that 
drove us into the greatest deficits in history. Indeed, they are the 
reason I am standing here today.
  I am a social worker by profession, and for years I noticed things 
were getting worse and worse for the middle class. I kept saying the 
middle class is stumbling and the poor have fallen, because while the 
very wealthy were enjoying the tax breaks, thanks to this 
administration, the middle class was trying to figure out if they had 
enough money to go to the movies on Friday night and have money for 
pizza. Indeed, this is the first time we have seen this great, great 
difference in the rich and the poor since the time of the Titanic. 
Wages have been flat for several years now.
  The American public understands this. This is not a Republican issue, 
it is not a Democratic issue, it is an issue about protecting the 
middle class, building the middle class, and bringing the poor so we do 
not have a permanent underclass in this country. The way to do that is 
to make sure we have a fair tax system, and we have to have 
accountability and oversight to make sure that we do.
  We know that the tax breaks have gone to the top 1 percent for too 
long. So this drove me to Congress, looking at this; and the final, 
final nail in the coffin was looking at what happened after Hurricane 
Katrina because even if the administration could not find it in their 
hearts to take care of the people of Katrina, where was the homeland 
security?
  When you look at Louisiana, you realize there is a port there. Gas 
and oil are there. Our food, our grains come there. Seventy percent of 
the grain passes through there. Certainly that is a vulnerable area. We 
heard that we were spending all of this money for homeland security and 
for programs to protect the American people. But when Hurricane Katrina 
hit, the American Government was missing in action with the exception 
of our military, and I give them great credit for what they did.
  I know this because I went there not once, but twice. It was very 
frightening to see that the Federal Government was missing in action. 
And then the extra insult of having to listen on television while they 
were praising each other for the good job they did. They didn't bring 
the resources to the American people. They didn't have the money to 
bring the resources to the American people.
  Where is the money? That is why we are here in Washington, to find 
out where is the money for the programs that the American people need, 
that we must have to protect us.
  I looked at Iraq. I went there a couple of weeks ago. I looked at the 
contractors there personally. There are more than 100,000 contractors 
in Iraq for 133,000 soldiers; some more now, we had over 100,000 
contractors.
  The American public knows this word so well, Halliburton. The 
American people understand what has happened to the money. Every child 
born today has a birth tax of about $29,000. Think about that. We went 
from a budget surplus to the greatest deficit in history, borrowing 
money from Communist China along the way to pay our bills, which is a 
security risk that all Americans understand, and every child born today 
owes about $29,000 before he or she draws their first breath. This is 
an outrage, and we need to turn this around.
  Like the rest of my freshman class, this propelled me to run. I had 
never even run for office in elementary school or high school. I was a 
social worker. I taught politics. Yes, I got involved in politics, but 
never envisioned myself here. And it is a tremendous honor to be on the 
floor and to be able to protect and speak up for the American people.
  But we have an obligation to, first of all, provide programs that 
lift the poor and the middle class, to make sure that the wealthy pay 
their fair share; and we have an obligation to be fiscally 
conservative, and we can do that by good fiscal oversight and 
accountability. That has been missing for many years.
  We are having more hearings now looking at various aspects. I serve 
on the Armed Services Committee. It was a shock to me to find out that 
we did not have the equipment we need and that the soldiers were 
suffering so.
  Again, we can talk about Walter Reed. We had a week last week about 
that. Who could leave a soldier in rooms that had mold? Who could leave 
soldiers unattended and untreated? If we are going to honor our 
soldiers, we need to honor our commitments to the soldiers, and it is 
not right to say if we can afford to. When we put them into battle, we 
make sure that our commitment will be to care for them. Once they say 
they are going to serve us, it is our obligation to serve them.
  It is truly an honor to be here and to be able to be working for the 
people of my own State, New Hampshire, and the people of this country. 
It is an honor to be here with such wonderful colleagues who are driven 
by one motive, and that is service and patriotism.
  We were campaigning over a year or 2 years. We heard the message loud 
and clear from the middle class that they needed protection. They 
needed protection from policies and this administration that protected 
the wealthy and harmed the middle class. They wanted their children to 
be able to afford college again because that changed. They wanted their 
children to have the opportunities that they had growing up.
  Even rents have gotten so high and with wages so flat, adult children 
have to come home to live with their parents. This is not the American 
way. The American way is to be fiscally responsible and to make sure 
that opportunities are available for all.
  I think we have a terrific class with wonderful leadership. Speaker 
Pelosi certainly understands the direction this country needs to go in. 
We will do the job that the American people sent us here to do.
  Ms. SUTTON. I thank the distinguished gentlewoman from New Hampshire, 
and I appreciate your service, as do the people I represent, and your 
leadership.
  You bring up so many important points. The bad news is that so much 
has gone wrong in the past due to the failure of proper oversight and 
accountability. The good news is that, as

[[Page H2563]]

you point out, we heard the call of the American people for more. We 
know what the expectations are, and we know what our responsibility is. 
And every day I am honored to come here with you to serve, and knowing 
that that is why we are here in the people's House, to help make those 
course corrections that will take this country in a new direction.
  It is so important to be here tonight to talk about that oversight 
and accountability because it is essential if we are to make those 
course corrections, whether it be one of the points you make about the 
growing income and inequality, which is at record levels. We are losing 
the middle class. There are many, many things that we can do and we 
have already done, and we have talked about some of them today in the 
opening hours of Congress when we increased the minimum wage, when we 
made college education more accessible and more affordable, when we 
expanded research and development into alternative fuels which will 
provide us not only with a way to deal with an environmental 
imperative, but also as a security issue we have to address that, and 
our dependence on foreign oil.
  Also, it provides us with opportunity for jobs today and tomorrow for 
the people out there because one of the other ways that Congress can 
show its oversight and accountability commitment, and I expect that we 
will because we heard a lot about this on the campaign trail from the 
American people, is on the issue of trade because we are losing jobs 
and our trade policies are not working for the American people and 
American businesses in the way that they should.
  So I am confident that one of the things that we are going to do is 
exercise our constitutional responsibility to deal with trade and make 
sure whatever trade model we have--and we are for trade, and I hope to 
get to the day in the early days of this coming Congress, or later on 
in this Congress, that we can vote for a trade policy that will truly 
lift up American workers as well as workers abroad, and that we will be 
able to vote for a trade policy that has environmental standards that 
benefit America and this world.
  There are so many options that we can do. There are so many things 
that we can do. We can have a trade policy with enforceability to stop 
the unfair manipulation and unfair trade practices. These are all 
matters of accountability and oversight, and this Congress I know is 
committed to producing that.
  Now I want to again yield to my good friend, the gentleman from 
Minnesota, because another point that the distinguished gentlewoman 
from New Hampshire brought up was the issue of our veterans and what we 
are doing and not doing to serve our veterans who have served us so 
nobly.
  So I yield to Representative Walz who has some charts that he is 
going to share with the American people.
  Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to 
illustrate to the American people exactly what we are talking about 
when accountability and oversight fail. There are ramifications. Some 
may go unnoticed; others are absolutely horrific.
  In the past several weeks, we have seen one of those examples. And 
the sad part is most people were not surprised. Most people have looked 
at this issue.
  I want to talk about accountability and oversight. This Congress and 
our leadership are making sure we get our job done here. They are 
working us 5 days a week most weeks. My constituents back home, they 
don't have a lot of sympathy when they hear we are working Monday 
through Friday in the Capitol. That is what we were elected to do. That 
is what we were hired to do in their name.
  I hear my friends on the other side of the aisle talk about, what do 
we have to do the whole time we are here? We are not voting the whole 
time, and the answer is, do our job providing oversight and 
accountability. Keep in mind, the entire last Congress had 30 oversight 
hearings. In the first 8 weeks, we have had 100.
  Getting the job done for the American people means acting as a 
coequal branch in the responsibility of being fiscally responsible with 
their money, putting policy forward that benefits everyone, and making 
sure that the follow through is done on that.
  I want to mention something as it pertains to our veterans and let 
people understand where this starts exactly. Make no mistake about 
budgets, budgets are far more than accounting. We hear our friends on 
the other side of the aisle talk about accounting and putting money in 
Americans' pockets. They talk about they have never met anyone who did 
their own taxes.
  Well, I came to this Congress straight from the public school 
classroom, never having run for elected office before. I was teaching 
high school geography a few months ago. I can tell them on a high 
school teacher's salary, I was doing my own taxes.
  And when they talk about a budget in terms of only being what is left 
in the pocket, they forget that budgets are moral documents. They are a 
reflection of our national values. How we prioritize those values is an 
absolute reflection of what we believe is most important in this 
Nation.
  Now, I also come to you not just as a teacher but as a 24-year 
veteran of our armed services and our Army National Guard. I think the 
highest distinction that I could ever claim--at this time, I am the 
highest ranking enlisted soldier or servicemember that has ever served 
in this exalted body; it is something that I am very proud of.
  Those people who know something about the military, I retired as a 
command sergeant major. The command sergeant major has one 
responsibility: Take care of the troops. Nothing else. That means feed 
them, clothe them, pay them, make sure their health is taken care of, 
and train them to complete their mission. That's what you need to do.
  Well, I am now a member of the Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on 
Oversight and Investigation, and what has happened at Walter Reed and 
what is going to happen again is not an anomaly. It was a decision. It 
was a decision that resulted from a failure in leadership and a bigger 
failure in accountability and oversight. And the saddest part about 
this is, the saddest, most tragic part about this was, it was totally 
avoidable.
  Our veterans' service organizations, from the DAV to the Paralyzed 
American Veterans, to the Blind Veterans of America, to the Legion, all 
of these organizations understood what was coming.

                              {time}  2115

  I would like to just talk a little bit about, and illustrate, how the 
budget impacted what happened and how the lack of leadership and the 
lack of accountability led to that.
  The chart I have up here is showing this is the VA treating many more 
Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. Every soldier who serves in these 
wars will, one day, be a veteran. Now, it does not come as a surprise 
to most Americans, since 2003, when the war started in Iraq, we have 
seen a steady increase in the number of soldiers that are going to be 
treated. Seems pretty logical. Most people anticipated that was going 
to come.
  The number of VA health care patients in general continued to rise. 
We have an aging generation from our World War II veterans to our 
Korean War veterans to our Vietnam veterans. They are continuing to 
rise at a steady rate. Every single veteran service organization 
predicted this. Every single person involved with this predicted this.
  Now, we are finding out we have not had enough money. We have not 
correctly planned ahead to take care of the warrior after the war. When 
you choose to fight a war, and make no mistake about it, Iraq was a 
choice, you understand you accept full responsibility for those 
warriors, not for the time that they are there, not for the time they 
are treated in a facility like Walter Reed, but for the rest of their 
life.
  In falling short on this, here is how we are going to make up for it. 
If you will look at our copy here, enrollment fees, pharmacy copayments 
and third party copayments. This says up here, the President's budget 
increases fees on veterans. Make no mistake about the language. This is 
the President's tax on warriors, period.
  So we saw a situation, increasing number of veterans coming back, 
budgets that were grossly underestimating the number, that we would 
need to try and spend the money elsewhere or

[[Page H2564]]

maybe put the money back in somebody's pocket. When I go to my 
district, and I ask them the question, do you want a few more dollars 
in your pocket or do you want to make sure that warrior has a room that 
shows the dignity that this Nation should provide, and every single one 
of them will go with the veteran.
  We must have an open debate in this Congress about accountability, 
where is this money going to go, where is this money going to come 
from, and I want Members who agree with this, that this is the way we 
should do it, to stand in front of the mother from Saginaw, Michigan, 
who was at the VA hospital in Minneapolis, treating her son with a 
traumatic brain injury, and tell her she better get the checkbook out 
and write it out and pay for this because that is exactly what has 
happened here.
  When this Congress chose to not hold hearings, to not hold oversight, 
and to not ask the hard questions, they created the situation at Walter 
Reed. They created the coming situation on our VA system, and this new 
Congress has accepted the responsibility and I, as a command sergeant 
major, retired, stand here and say my responsibility was to take care 
of those soldiers in my unit. My responsibility now is to take care of 
all of them.
  I have absolute confidence in my colleagues that they will provide 
exactly that. That is what accountability means. That is what oversight 
means. It is not a gimmick to get reelected. It is not cute words, and 
for those that say it is hogwash and pay-as-you-go does not matter, I 
tell them this is what matters. Decide how we take care of our veterans 
and let us do it the way this Nation knows it should.
  I know we have a few more things to go over, but this illustration is 
one that impassions all of us. It is one that did not need to happen, 
but it is one that I am optimistic holds the silver lining of uniting 
this Nation over an issue we all care about and getting real results.
  Ms. SUTTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman, and we 
thank you for your service both in the Congress and in our military.
  At this point, I yield to another distinguished colleague who has 
joined us on the floor who is a fantastic new Member of the Congress, 
who has shown great leadership on many issues, Dr. Steve Kagen, a 
representative from Wisconsin.
  Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Speaker, thank you and I thank as well Tim for being 
not just a classmate in this great class of 2006 but also for serving 
the country and speaking out so eloquently and forcefully. You do not 
have to work out later like I do. You just had your workout.
  But you bring up something that is terribly important. These are not 
just words or phrases. The boards are accountability, responsibility. 
This is something that you know from living your life as you have that 
we must do not just here in Congress but in our everyday lives as 
citizens.
  I am sure you would much rather be home teaching and serving your 
country as you were, but you were called to a higher duty. You were 
called to come here, and it was meant to happen.
  I would like to mention a few things about values. I believe that the 
President has put forward a budget that is a reflection of his values 
and his party's values. Where you spend your money is a reflection of 
your values, and the President sought to cut $3.8 billion from veterans 
health care and veterans benefits. The President and this 
administration was asking our veterans who have already earned their 
benefits to pay for them again. Why pay for something you have already 
earned? This is something that I consider to be disrespectful to those 
who have served in harm's way.
  We will be talking about Iraq in several days and several weeks here 
on floor. We will be talking about supporting our troops, not just 
before they go in with adequate training and preparation and all the 
armament they need, not just during the combat itself, but after they 
come home, they must receive the care that they deserve in a prompt and 
meaningful fashion.
  I served our veterans for a number of years in VA hospitals in 
Wisconsin and Illinois, and I can tell you the VA hospitals are 
superior, much better today than they were in the 1970s and 1980s and 
early 1990s when I was working there. They are much better than what we 
saw in Walter Reed, much better, but what happened at Walter Reed was 
this infection, if you will, this malfeasance, this bad idea, that 
government cannot help people. It is called privatization.
  We should not privatize the health care of our veterans unless you 
are going to offer every veteran who served in harm's way with a card 
and say, here you go, soldier, you served in harm's way, you covered 
our back, now we have got yours; go to any doctor, any pharmacy, any 
hospital of your choice, we have got you covered.
  Well, we are not ready to do that yet, are we? This administration 
has to come to understand there is a better way. Our class of 2006 
represents America's hope, hope for a positive change and new 
direction, not just in veterans health care but in health care for 
every citizen in this country. I believe that is what we have to offer.
  Ms. SUTTON. I thank the distinguished gentleman and both of you, the 
gentleman from Minnesota as well, who point out so eloquently the 
responsibility that we have when we put forth a budget.
  I am honored as a freshman Member of this Congress to have the honor 
to serve on the Budget Committee, and while I am grateful to be there 
because we have the chance to realign the budget that came to us from 
the administration, I must say that when it came over, when it failed 
to provide the resources that we need for veterans health care and 
asked our veterans to pay more for their health care, it was a great 
disappointment.
  But the reality is, because we are in a fiscal mess, because of years 
of irresponsibility, failure to provide oversight and accountability, 
even though we have limited resources because of that, I know that this 
class and this Congress is committed to realigning the money that we do 
have to ensure that we do, Mr. Speaker, that we do provide our troops 
what they need when we send them into any mission on our behalf and 
that they have what they need after they return.
  Our commitment to ensuring oversight and accountability is going to 
be an ongoing mission because it is an ongoing responsibility. It is, 
in fact, the very essence of what our congressional duty is, to be that 
check, to ensure that which we enact and that which is done from the 
administration comports with the needs of the American people, and we 
will do so in an honest and open way.
  We have heard about some of the steps that we have already taken, the 
first step, to restore trust, openness and accountability in 
Washington. This week, we are going to take additional actions, and in 
fact, we have already taken some here on this floor today.
  In this week, we have scheduled consideration or acted already on 
whistleblower reform. We are going to deal with that issue. We are 
strengthening the protection for Federal whistleblowers to prevent 
retaliation against those who report wrongdoing, waste, fraud and 
abuse. This is so essential to making sure that the safeguards that we 
need will result in the kind of a government and the policies and the 
contracting and the work of the people will be of such a caliber that 
we can be proud, and more importantly, the American people can be 
proud.
  We are also providing for more timely disclosure of government 
documents, another good measure not only of good government but of 
accountability, that will pay huge dividends and allow us to ensure 
that we are acting wisely and responsibly.
  We are also nullifying a 2001 presidential executive order and 
restoring public access to presidential records. The public has a right 
to know the public's business. This is another measure to ensure that.
  As we talk about the need to fund veterans health care, how can we 
fail to mention at the same time we fail to meet that need, we have 
seen gross excesses of lack of oversight and accountability and money, 
literally being lost in Iraq due to a failure of proper oversight of 
those we contract with. Limits on how long Federal no-bid contracts can 
last will be enacted this week by this new Congress. We will minimize 
the use of no-bid contracts and direct agencies to justify any such 
contracts if they are awarded.
  These are all important measures that we will take this week in order 
to

[[Page H2565]]

continue to fulfill our commitment to the American people to take this 
country into a new direction, one that will work for them and one that 
has their interests at heart.
  As we come to the conclusion of our hour, I would just like to give 
my colleagues another opportunity to report what they would like to 
report in these closing moments to the American people. I yield to my 
good friend from Minnesota (Mr. Walz).
  Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from 
Ohio, and so eloquently put. It is a new opportunity in America. It is 
one of optimism. We have got a lot of work to do, but Americans always 
rise to the challenge in the time of the greatest challenge.
  I think it is important to realize that this place we are standing, 
this sacred hall, this is the people's House. This is the first branch 
of government in the Constitution. This branch is coequal to the other 
two branches, and our duty of providing oversight and accountability is 
not something that we get to pick and choose on. It is our 
constitutional responsibility.
  When I hear people entrust me, you will hear people in this very 
chamber start using the term ``micromanage.'' It seems to me there is a 
place where they dream up these words that they just keep repeating and 
repeating. Well, I can tell you what, micromanage, call it what you 
may, could be oversight and accountability also, and I ask my 
constituents, would you like a little oversight and accountability at 
Walter Reed? Would you like a little accountability on the situation in 
Iraq? Would you like a little accountability on what you hear on some 
of the things that are happening? And the answer is yes.
  Sunshine truly is the best antiseptic. This new Congress has been 
here for 2 months, and there is a new way of doing business. It is the 
way that this country was laid out under the Constitution. It is the 
one that has served us best for over 230 years, and it is the one that 
we will continue to use that will provide the American people with the 
best government possible.

                              {time}  2130

  I thank the gentlelady, I thank my good colleague from Wisconsin for 
the opportunity to be here with you, and I look forward to many more 
opportunities to do the Nation's bidding the way it should be.
  Ms. SUTTON. I thank the gentleman. At this time I would like to yield 
to my friend from Wisconsin (Mr. Kagen).
  Mr. KAGEN. I am very proud to be standing next to both of you and 
express a great deal of optimism. I was sent here from the great State 
of Wisconsin, some might call it Cheeseconsin. We are still the Dairy 
State. I was sent here because people felt they needed some honest 
leadership, leadership that wouldn't let them down, some straight 
talkers.
  We are delivering that message here. We are delivering a message not 
just verbally, but in a work product. Take a look, if people around the 
hall here and at home across America will take a look at the work we 
have already produced, you will find we have been working hard, and the 
work is not done yet. I am absolutely convinced that by working 
together, we will build a better future for everyone in this country. 
Stay tuned to C-SPAN. We will be back and deliver a positive message 
again.
  Ms. SUTTON. I thank the gentleman.
  These issues that we have begun to talk about here, and we have begun 
to take action on, is part of our ongoing effort to restore 
accountability and trust in Washington. They are part of the mandate of 
the last election.
  Together, we will build on this work throughout the 110th Congress, 
and as I wrap up here, I would just like to thank those people, those 
people that I have the honor to represent from the 13th District of 
Ohio from Lorain to Elyira to Akron to Barberton, I thank you for the 
privilege of serving you, and we shall be unyielding in our commitment 
to deliver on promises

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