[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 14 (Tuesday, January 29, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S429]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   COMMISSION ON WARTIME CONTRACTING

  Mr. WEBB. Mr. President, the second issue I wish to mention today 
regards the National Defense Authorization Act, which the President 
signed into law yesterday. In that act was a commission on wartime 
contracting, which Senator McCaskill and I jointly introduced last year 
and were able to get embodied in the National Defense Authorization 
Act.
  This is a very important piece of legislation. It will put into place 
an independent, bipartisan commission that has a 2-year sunset date on 
it--jointly picked, jointly selected by Democrats and Republicans in 
the Senate and in the House and from the administration--a commission 
filled with experts, not Senators sitting around or political people 
sitting around, to examine the wartime contracting that has taken place 
since our invasion of Iraq, particularly, also looking at Afghanistan, 
and trying to bring accountability to the broad range of fraud, waste, 
and abuse that we all know has occurred during that period.
  Now, to my surprise, when the President signed this legislation 
yesterday, he issued a signing statement along with it saying this, 
with respect to this wartime contracting commission, that:

       This wartime contracting commission purports to impose 
     requirements that could inhibit the President's ability to 
     carry out his constitutional obligations to take care that 
     the laws be faithfully executed to protect national security, 
     to supervise the executive branch, and to execute his 
     authority as Commander in Chief.

  He goes on to say that:

       The executive branch shall construe such provisions in a 
     manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the 
     President.

  In other words, the President of the United States, who has been in 
charge of the conduct of this war, and whose administration has been in 
charge of executing these contracts--supervising them, making sure that 
they meet the requirements of fairness in the law, is now saying that 
he believes a legislative body can enact a law that he can choose to 
ignore basically because he says it would interfere with his 
responsibility as Commander in Chief to supervise a war. I am totally 
at a loss. I am totally amazed to see this kind of language as it 
respects this legislation.

  The Commission was put into place with broad bipartisan support and 
bicameral support by both the House and the Senate, the idea being to 
study systemic problems--the same sorts of things this President, I 
would think, would want to root out. Its historic precedent comes from 
the Truman Committee that took place during World War II, when then-
Senator Harry Truman wanted to look at wartime fraud, waste, and abuse 
so we could get a proper handle on the Federal spending that was going 
into mobilization and into the projects that were being put on line 
during World War II. We certainly didn't see President Franklin 
Roosevelt trying to say the Truman Committee's work was going to 
interfere with his ability to conduct World War II. To the contrary, 
the President, during that war, saw this was the type of thing he 
needed in order to bring the right sort of supervision and the right 
sort of accountability that might eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse.
  So we don't quite know what the administration intends with this sort 
of language, but I want all my colleagues to be aware of it and to be 
aware that it potentially is an impingement on the rights of the 
legislative body, in effect saying the President has the authority to 
ignore a law that has now passed, a law he has now signed.
  So we are going to go forward with this Commission. We are going to 
work with the administration, we hope, to set it up. We are going to 
move as rapidly as we can because the clock is ticking in terms of 
statute of limitations on some of the charges that might be filed. I 
hope the people of this country understand we want to do this for the 
good of the American people; that we have a responsibility to make sure 
the Nation's purse strings have been properly taken care of and that we 
are acting as the stewards of America's taxpayers.
  Again, if someone in the administration would like to explain to us 
what their constitutional issue is with a piece of legislation the 
President has signed, we would be happy to hear that. In the meantime, 
we are moving forward with this Commission. It is vitally important to 
accountability in the Government. I am very proud to have been a 
sponsor of it, and we are marching forward.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan is recognized.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed for 5 
minutes as in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has that right.

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