[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 8 (Wednesday, January 14, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H268-H273]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




REQUIRING COMMITTEES TO INVESTIGATE REPORTS OF WASTE, FRAUD, ABUSE, OR 
                             MISMANAGEMENT

  Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to 
the resolution (H. Res. 40) amending the Rules of the House of 
Representatives to require each standing committee to hold periodic 
hearings on the topic of waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement in 
Government programs which that committee may authorize, and for other 
purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
  The text of the resolution is as follows:

                               H. Res. 40

       Resolved, That clause 2 of rule XI of the Rules of the 
     House of Representatives is amended by adding at the end the 
     following new paragraphs:
       ``(n)(1) Each standing committee, or a subcommittee 
     thereof, shall hold at least one hearing during each 120-day 
     period following the establishment of the committee on the 
     topic of waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement in Government 
     programs which that committee may authorize.
       ``(2) A hearing described in subparagraph (1) shall include 
     a focus on the most egregious instances of waste, fraud, 
     abuse, or mismanagement as documented by any report the 
     committee has received from a Federal Office of the Inspector 
     General or the Comptroller General of the United States.
       ``(o) Each committee, or a subcommittee thereof, shall hold 
     at least one hearing in any session in which the committee 
     has received disclaimers of agency financial statements from 
     auditors of any Federal agency that the committee may 
     authorize to hear testimony on such disclaimers from 
     representatives of any such agency.
       ``(p) Each standing committee, or a subcommittee thereof, 
     shall hold at least one hearing on issues raised by reports 
     issued by the Comptroller General of the United States 
     indicating that Federal programs or operations that the 
     committee may authorize are at high risk for waste, fraud, 
     and mismanagement, known as the `high-risk list' or the 
     `high-risk series'.''.
       Sec. 2.  Clause 1(d)(3) of rule XI of the Rules of the 
     House of Representatives is amended by adding at the end the 
     following new sentence: ``That section shall also delineate 
     any hearings held pursuant to clauses 2(n), (o), or (p) of 
     this rule.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Cardoza) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California (Mr. Cardoza).


                             General Leave

  Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks 
and to include extraneous material on House Resolution 40.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, make no mistake about it, these are tough times for our 
country. The United States is facing an economic disaster unlike 
anything we have seen since the Great Depression.
  In the coming weeks, there will surely be differences of opinion as 
to how to best address the ailments of our Nation. But one thing is 
certain: Now, more than ever, it is time to ensure that government 
spends the taxpayers' money wisely.
  For the first 6 years of the Bush administration, there was virtually 
no oversight by the Republican-led Congress. This led to rampant fraud 
and abuse, and billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars that were 
squandered by the administration, particularly regarding Iraq 
reconstruction and the response to Katrina.
  Beginning in January of 2007, the Democratic Congress turned a new 
page and took numerous steps to begin changing the way we do business 
by restoring accountability and oversight. House Resolution 40, 
introduced by my very good friend and fellow Blue Dog colleague, the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Tanner), and myself, simply adds another 
layer to the rigorous oversight measures that we have already 
established.
  This resolution amends the House rules to require each standing 
committee to hold at least three hearings per year on waste, fraud and 
abuse under each respective committee's jurisdiction. It requires a 
hearing in the event that an agency's auditor issues a disclaimer that 
the agency's financial statements are not in order. It also requires a 
hearing if an agency under that respective committee's jurisdiction has 
a program deemed by the GAO to be at high risk for waste, fraud and 
abuse.
  Mr. Speaker, at the request of my friends on the other side of the 
aisle, there are two other stipulations. First, that the resolution 
shall be considered in light of existing House rules governing the 
conduct of committee hearings, including hearings held in executive 
session and the treatment of executive session materials; and, second, 
to require that committee activities reports identify the hearings held 
under the resolution.
  Friends, plain and simple, it is now time to audit America's books. 
This resolution will add another level of accountability by shining 
light on the most egregious cases of government waste.
  I would add, Mr. Speaker, that I am very encouraged by President-
elect Obama's statements regarding his intent to pore through the 
budget line-by-line to eliminate wasteful spending. However, while I 
take the President-elect at his word, this resolution demonstrates that 
this Democratic Congress will not turn a blind eye to government waste 
simply because there is now a Democratic administration. Free passes 
are over, and we must build upon increased oversight and accountability 
efforts.
  We have an opportunity to reinvent government and adhere to the 
fiscal accountability measures that Blue Dogs have long advocated. This 
will require tough decisions. But given these challenging economic 
times, cutting out waste, fraud and abuse must be among our top 
priorities in this Congress. All this requires is some bureaucratic 
soul-searching.
  I ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join the Blue Dogs 
in this quest.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, 
and I very gladly rise in strong support of this resolution, and, more 
importantly, in the bipartisan spirit in which it has been shaped.
  The basic idea behind this resolution, as my friend has said, is to 
ensure that committees are fulfilling their oversight duties and fully 
addressing the

[[Page H269]]

need to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse from our Federal budget. While 
we always have a duty to spend taxpayer dollars wisely, as we all know, 
this obligation has never, ever been more critical than it is today 
because of our economic environment. We cannot afford to waste a penny 
of the taxpayers' hard-earned dollars.
  But the best of intentions must be implemented wisely or the effort 
will be wasted. Republicans had a number of suggestions for 
strengthening this resolution and to make it more effective. While we 
would have preferred to have this resolution go through regular order, 
we were very pleased, nonetheless, to find the process to be both 
consultative and collaborative. Ultimately, our modifications were 
incorporated into the final product.
  Our primary concern was one of transparency. Requiring committees to 
hold hearings on egregious reports of waste, fraud and abuse is 
important. But without transparency, there can be no accountability. We 
simply asked that hearings on the reports of inspectors general or the 
Comptroller General be included in each committee's survey of activity. 
These surveys are a matter of public record.
  By including this information, the taxpayers will be able to directly 
follow the oversight activities of committees. They will have the 
opportunity to judge for themselves the level of scrutiny that is given 
to serious allegations of wasted taxpayer dollars. Our request for 
greater transparency is reflected in the resolution that is before us 
today.
  We also asked for further clarification on the protections put in 
place to safeguard classified material. Again, the majority was 
receptive to our request and provided the necessary clarifications.
  We have one final area of concern which I would pose as a question to 
the majority manager: As we work to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse, 
it is essential that we do not neglect to turn the microscope inward 
and examine our own operations right here in this institution. The 
legislative branch must also be fully accountable to the taxpayer.
  I would hope that legislative branch inspectors general, such as 
those in the Offices of the Architect of the Capitol, the Library of 
Congress and the Smithsonian, be subjected to the same scrutiny as 
other inspectors general are imposing on their parts of government.
  I would ask the gentleman for a clarification in this matter. Do 
these legislative inspectors general fall under the definition of the 
Federal Office of the Inspector General pursuant to the proposed 
subparagraph (n)(2)?
  I yield to the gentleman for his response.
  Mr. CARDOZA. I thank my colleague and friend for yielding and for his 
thoughtful suggestions.
  In fact, yes, the Committee on House Administration is covered under 
this resolution, and the other measures, as you have indicated, have 
already been incorporated as well.
  Mr. DREIER. Good.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for his response, and I would also 
like to thank the majority staff, particularly majority council Sampak 
Garg, for their consultative approach to this resolution. I believe 
that this measure puts forth a workable and effective means of 
improving committee oversight and I believe that the quality of the end 
product is a direct result of the bipartisan collaboration that took 
place throughout the process.
  It is my sincere hope, Mr. Speaker, that future efforts of the Rules 
Committee can be similarly driven by consultation and collaboration.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to my good friend, the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Tanner), the author of the measure.
  Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, and Mr. Dreier, I 
appreciate your comments. What we are attempting to do is to 
reestablish congressional oversight.
  Congress authorizes and appropriates money, but we don't actually 
spend it. So when we are asking the administration, whoever it may be, 
Democrat, Republican, whoever, to come up here and explain some of the 
things that we have seen in the paper by this instrument we are talking 
about here, I think all of us benefit.
  What basically H.R. 40 does is it puts in place a systematic 
mechanism for regular oversight, not only just waste, fraud and abuse, 
but, as Mr. Cardoza said in his opening remarks, whenever there is an 
auditor's disclaimer, that will trigger a hearing to hopefully ask them 
why they had to file a disclaimer; what is the information they didn't 
receive, why didn't they receive it, who is withholding it, so we can 
actually fix something around here for a change.

                              {time}  1500

  And then, of course, the third thing, those two look backwards sort 
of at what already may have happened. The third provision looks ahead.
  Every year, as you know, the GAO identifies, or every Congress, high 
risk programs. That basically is government talk for programs that 
don't work as they were intended when they were passed by Congress. And 
so, when that happens, there is a hearing to identify those high risk 
programs into the future so that we can either fix them or abolish 
them.
  Without getting into it, there were some 13,000 IG recommendations, 
Inspector General recommendations that went unattended in recent years. 
That is not only our fault, but it is, in my view, a dereliction of the 
duty of the Congress as a separate and independent branch from this or 
any other administration. And so what we are attempting to do, again, 
is to put in place a systematic, structural oversight mechanism where 
the House will look at not only what we are going to do, but what we've 
already done.
  And so, again, I appreciate your comments.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, at this time I am very happy to yield 3 
minutes to our hardworking new ranking member of the Committee on 
Oversight and Government Reform, my friend from San Diego (Mr. Issa).
  Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, almost every day the Government Accountability 
Office and Inspector Generals issue a report identifying waste, fraud, 
abuse and mismanagement. The Federal Government is large, and we can 
use all the help we can get. Unfortunately, these important reports 
often go unread. They fall, without testimony, on deaf ears, and 
Congress does little or nothing about it.
  I welcome the fact, Mr. Speaker, today that we are setting a 
baseline, a starting point for oversight by the authorization 
committees. I'm pleased to serve on the committee that has broad 
jurisdiction, and by agreement with the Rules Committee, and with the 
leadership of Chairman Towns, we have secured the fact that nothing in 
this rules change would limit the unlimited jurisdiction of the 
Committee on Oversight and Reform to, in fact, look at these same 
reports and to hold hearings on any one or any 13,000 of these various 
remaining claims as the Bush administration leaves.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to speak particularly to Mr. Tanner's statement 
which, I think, was appropriate, and should be dealt with. During the 
Bush administration, 98,000 such findings came out of the GAO and the 
IGs. 13,000 were not dealt with during that administration, roughly a 
14 percent leftover.
  I look forward to the fact that the Government Oversight and Reform 
Committee will have the help of all the authorization committees to 
look into those, and I look forward to working on a bipartisan basis, 
both within the committee of primary oversight and with each the 
committees of jurisdiction, because I think it's important that as we 
allow a new administration to set goals, we deal with all of the 
leftovers, the 13,000 that perhaps would have been taken care of in the 
ordinary course, but now need to be quickly looked at so the new 
administration can get on to its agendas. And of course, as time goes 
on, I suspect that we will be looking at failures that occur on the new 
President's watch.
  I look forward to working with the gentleman from California on a 
bipartisan basis, to deal with the remaining roughly 14 percent of 
those that occurred on President Bush's watch.
  I look forward to this legislation. I once again commend Chairman 
Towns for his work to make sure that the committee of primary oversight 
is not limited by this resolution. We've been assured that it isn't.
  Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining on 
both sides?

[[Page H270]]

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from California (Mr. Cardoza) 
has 13 minutes remaining. The gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) 
has 14 minutes remaining.
  Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Speaker, I would like to now yield such time as he 
may consume to Mr. Tanner to insert an item into the Record.
  Mr. TANNER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.


                              Project On Government Oversight,

                                 Washington, DC, January 13, 2009.
     Representative John Tanner,
     1226 Longworth House Office Building,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Representative Tanner: Thank you for the opportunity 
     to present the views of the Project On Government Oversight 
     (POGO) regarding H.Res. 40, which requires each standing 
     committee of the House of Representatives to hold periodic 
     hearings on the topics of waste, fraud, abuse, and 
     mismanagement. We believe that having such a systematic 
     approach to oversight enshrined in the Rules of the House 
     would greatly enhance Congressional oversight of executive 
     agencies' programs and functions.
       As you may know, POGO is a non-partisan nonprofit that for 
     more than 27 years has investigated and exposed corruption 
     and other misconduct in an effort to make federal agencies 
     more effective, accountable, open, and honest.
       For the past 18 months we have been engaged in an in-depth 
     study of the Inspector General system, examining both the law 
     and how the system works. We issued one report last February 
     on issues affecting IGs' independence (www.pogo.org/pogo-
files/reports/government-oversight/inspectors-general-many-
lack-essential-tools-for-independence/go-ig-20080226.html), 
     and are pleased to note that several of our suggestions were 
     incorporated into last year's Inspector General Reform Act 
     (H.R. 928, P.L. 110-409). We are planning to issue a second 
     report in the coming months regarding IGs' performance and 
     accountability.
       One of our conclusions is that Congress needs to pay much 
     more attention to the work of both IGs and the GAO. Too often 
     reports on important issues are left languishing, unread, on 
     the desks and shelves of Congressional staffers. It has been 
     30 years since Congress created the IG system, and we believe 
     it was a brilliant and unique concept--to place internal 
     watchdogs in most federal agencies where they would both 
     prevent and root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and encourage 
     federal programs to be more effective and efficient.
       However, this wonderful system can only work if Congress 
     pays attention to the resulting reports. Inspectors General 
     have no enforcement powers. They cannot force an agency to do 
     anything. If an agency will not fix a broken program, then it 
     is up to Congress to force them to do so.
       Frankly, there are two problems with Congress's ignoring IG 
     reports--one is the more common, when the IG has done good 
     work and makes important recommendations that need to be but 
     are not implemented. The other problem is the flip side to 
     this--some IGs produce only mediocre work and do not 
     challenge their agencies aggressively enough. Congress needs 
     to pay attention in both cases.
       For all of these reasons, we support the passage of H. Res. 
     40 to require each House committee to conduct at least one 
     hearing during each 120-day period regarding waste, fraud, 
     abuse, and mismanagement of the agencies under its 
     jurisdiction; at least one additional hearing if there are 
     disclaimers in any agency's financial report; and at least 
     one additional hearing if a program is listed as ``high 
     risk.''
       Again, we appreciate your asking us for our views and look 
     forward to working with you to make Congressional oversight 
     more aggressive and effective.
           Sincerely,
                                                   Danielle Brian,
                                               Executive Director.

  Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Speaker, I would like to now yield 2 minutes to the 
gentleman from Wisconsin, my very good friend, Mr. Kind.
  Mr. KIND. Mr. Speaker, I rise as one of the leaders of the new 
Democratic Coalition in strong support of this resolution. And I 
commend my two good friends from Tennessee and California for bringing 
this resolution before us and for the leadership that they have 
consistently shown on all matters pertaining to fiscal responsibility 
in this place.
  This legislation is the proverbial disinfectant that we are in 
desperate need of. By systematically requiring the committees of 
jurisdiction to periodically hold hearings in order to identify and 
root out waste, fraud and abuse and mismanagement in the Federal 
agencies and with the Federal programs, it's an important step for us 
to get our fiscal house in order.
  This is a bipartisan problem, and it's going to require a bipartisan 
solution for it. So I'm encouraged that our friends across the aisle 
also see the need and the necessity to move forward in this systematic 
fashion to deal with it. This, coupled with President-elect Obama's 
decision to create and to appoint a chief performance officer in the 
White House, I feel, is a good, 1, 2 punch in order to root out some of 
the redundancy and excess waste and abuse that takes place with Federal 
programs.
  But we should also be clear that this is a first step of many steps 
that we will have to take to get our fiscal house in order.
  Unfortunately, the economy's tanking and in the short-term, we're 
going to be dealing with a stimulus package which will all be deficit 
financing; and there's great consensus that we have to do it. But in 
the long term, the picture looks very bleak.
  In fact, the Treasury Department last month issued their annual audit 
report that shows that over the next 75 years, we have a $57 trillion 
unfunded liability facing our Nation; clearly, a glide path to 
unsustainability. That's more the net worth of all of us in this 
Country. And at some point we have to put a formal process in place, 
whether it's the creation of a fiscal commission or some form of 
bipartisan budget summit to deal with a long term strategy to get this 
fiscal house back in order. A $57 trillion unfunded liability sets the 
next generation up for failure. This, along with more efforts on fiscal 
responsibility, is something we're going to have to come to grips with 
very shortly. I encourage my colleagues to support the resolution.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume 
to respond to some of the remarks made by my friend from Wisconsin. I 
have to say that this notion of our working together to put in place 
what I believe should be a bipartisan, bicameral effort to deal with 
this overall question of budget process reform is something that I've 
been privileged to champion for a long period of time. And I think that 
it is now way, way, way, overdue.
  I personally am a strong proponent of our moving towards a biennial 
budget process. I think that if you look at the potential benefits to 
having the Federal Government contract on a 2-year basis for something 
like energy, think of what the savings for the U.S. taxpayer would be.
  And if you look at a wide range of other areas, as many States have 
done, the notion of having a 2-year cycle would enhance our ability to 
do exactly what this resolution is encouraging, and that is, greater 
oversight. So I think that that is something that is important, and I 
hope that we will be able to put that into place.
  And with that, Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to yield 2 minutes to our 
hardworking second-term Member, the gentleman from Urbana, Ohio (Mr. 
Jordan).
  Mr. JORDAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the 
resolution.
  Look, we all know the facts. We've got a $10 trillion national debt. 
I believe last November the Treasury Department reported that we ran 
the largest single monthly deficit in American history. From 1789 to 
1987 we accumulated $2 trillion in national debt. This fiscal year, and 
last fiscal year we will add $2 trillion. So what it took us 200 years 
to do, we've done in 2 years.
  This is a good first step, something we need to do. And we need to 
look at every single line item in the Federal budget, every single 
agency. And so I want to applaud both parties and the President-elect 
for bringing this forward.
  I gave a speech the other night back home in Ohio and I said to the 
group, I said, who's going to bail out the bailout? And everyone kind 
of looked at me because they get it. They understand it's going to be 
the American taxpayer. Worse yet, it's going to be future American 
taxpayers, our kids and our grandkids. And so it's important that we do 
everything we can to look at where there's waste, where there's 
redundancy, where there's fraud, where there's crazy things in the 
Federal Government that we need to get a handle on and reduce spending 
so we can help families in the future and continue this great country 
that we call America.
  Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the thoughtful words 
of both our previous two speakers. I think their suggestions are very 
well-taken.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
New

[[Page H271]]

York, the chairman of the Government Oversight Committee, Mr. Towns.
  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this amendment to the 
House rules that emphasizes the importance of congressional oversight.
  As Chair of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I am 
pleased that this resolution requires all standing committees to 
include reviews of waste, fraud and abuse in their regular schedule of 
hearings. We need to attack waste, fraud and abuse every way that we 
possibly can.
  This rule, in no way diminishes the jurisdiction of the Oversight 
Committee. Instead, it complements the Oversight Committee by ensuring 
that our committee's focus on government accountability carries through 
to the authorizing committees for each agency.
  The ranking member, Mr. Issa, and I agree that the Oversight 
Committee will continue to review all of the GAO and Inspector General 
reports that our committee receives, and consider whether a hearing in 
our committee would be appropriate. I look forward to working with him 
and with all of the Members of the House towards our shared goal of 
making government work more efficiently for Americans, and also to make 
it much more transparent and this is what this amendment does, and 
that's the reason why I'm supporting it.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
Illinois, a leader in the effort to bring fiscal responsibility back to 
this institution, Ms. Bean.
  Ms. BEAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a proud cosponsor of this 
legislation that encourages adoption in the House rules. I'd like to 
thank Mr. Cardoza and Mr. Tanner for their leadership since we first 
introduced it in the 109th Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, I came to Washington from the private sector, where 
accountability and performance measurements are naturally part of best 
practices. As a Member of Congress I've long advocated for increased 
transparency and oversight of government spending and performance. As 
the people's representatives, we have a responsibility to hold Federal 
Government agencies accountable for the tax dollars that they receive 
and the services they provide.
  And, like my colleague from Wisconsin, I applaud the President-
elect's appointment of a chief performance officer. So we have 
Executive Branch measurement of government results as well.
  Although the last Congress improved agency and program oversight, 
this resolution takes accountability to the next level. House 
Resolution 40 mandates committee hearings every 4 months when reports 
suspect agency level waste, fraud or abuse of taxpayer dollars.
  Furthermore, whenever an agency or program fails its annual audit, 
additional hearings are required to ensure changes are enacted to 
prevent the continuation of business as usual.
  Finally, Congress, working with the GAO, will hold hearings to 
investigate those programs, departments or entitlements deemed high 
risk for abuse, such as the 2010 census.
  Particularly in a time of economic uncertainty, Americans rightfully 
expect Congress to create higher standards and practices to eliminate 
waste, fraud and abuse. Unfortunately, for the last 12 years the GAO 
has been unable to analyze the financial balance sheet of the U.S. 
government due to numerous agencies failing their audits. As we work to 
stabilize our financial markets and stimulate this economy, we must 
also attend to long-term fiscal restraint and responsibility.
  With this resolution and resulting hearings, Congress will have the 
information necessary to make the tough choices needed to bring our 
fiscal house in order. These practices will ensure greater return on 
taxpayer outlays.
  Again, I thank Mr. Tanner and Mr. Cardoza for their leadership, and 
encourage bipartisan support of this legislation.

                              {time}  1515

  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I am going to continue to reserve the 
balance of our time.
  Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to a member of the Blue 
Dog Coalition, the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Childers).
  Mr. CHILDERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House 
Resolution 40, authored by my good friend from Tennessee, Congressman 
John Tanner.
  Waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement are four adjectives the 
American people should not associate with government spending. I 
applaud Mr. Tanner's efforts over the years to bring accountability 
back to Federal spending.
  As a longtime businessman from north Mississippi, I can certainly 
tell you that waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement are not common 
practices in the business community throughout the First Congressional 
District of Mississippi or in the Eighth Congressional District of 
Tennessee as far as that goes.
  The current economic situation now, more than ever, demands that this 
Congress spend every taxpayer dollar with the utmost responsibility and 
care. In the event hardworking taxpayer dollars are being squandered, 
we, Congress, have an inherent task to put an end to poor financial 
decisions by government officials who do not understand the daily grind 
that the vast majority of the American people face.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. CARDOZA. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.
  Mr. CHILDERS. House Resolution 40 is an effective step towards 
ensuring this country gets back to fiscal responsibility, the same 
responsibility American families face routinely.
  Again, I applaud Congressman Tanner's leadership in bringing this 
good piece of legislation to the floor, and I look forward to its swift 
and immediate passage.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, in light of the bipartisan nature of this 
resolution that we're considering here on the floor, I would like to 
inquire of my friend if he would want me to yield him any additional 
time that he might need on his side.
  Mr. CARDOZA. I very much appreciate the gentleman's request. I think 
we have enough time for the concluding speakers.
  Mr. DREIER. Just in case you need any additional time, please don't 
hesitate. I would be happy to yield it to you.
  With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Cuellar).
  Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join my fellow Blue Dog 
Democrats in strong support of House Resolution 40. I want to thank Mr. 
Tanner, Mr. Cardoza and Chairman Towns for the leadership that they 
have provided on this subject matter.
  When you look at taxpayers, taxpayers want a government that is 
efficient, effective and accountable. This is what this legislation 
does. It does provide an efficient, effective and accountable 
government.
  It is always difficult for Congress to agree on exactly where 
America's tax dollars should go, but we all agree on where they should 
not go. In these difficult economic times, America can scarcely afford 
to throw tax dollars into the waste bin of fraud, abuse and 
mismanagement.
  Unfortunately, in the battle against waste, Congress does not have 
enough information, and we do not have any formal mechanism to 
investigate allegations of wasteful spending. This legislation sets up 
a mechanism. This is why today's legislation is a major step towards 
strengthening government accountability.
  Mr. Speaker, I strongly support H.R. 40. I thank Mr. Tanner, Mr. 
Cardoza and Mr. Towns for their leadership.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I will continue to reserve the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Speaker, I am also prepared to close, so I will 
allow the gentleman to close.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to 
simply say that I hope very much that this spirit of bipartisanship 
that has been exhibited here today in our quest to ensure that we 
responsibly ferret out waste, fraud and abuse and empower those 
inspector generals across the spectrum, including right here in this 
institution, will be an example and a model for the days, weeks, 
months, and years ahead.
  We have all been inspired by the words of President-elect Obama in

[[Page H272]]

which he has said that he wants to work in a bipartisan way. As I've 
said here on several occasions in the past week, I was pleased to 
receive a call from him, as I know many of my colleagues on this side 
of the aisle have received telephone calls from him, saying that he 
wants to work with us and that he wants our input.
  I will say, up until this moment, Mr. Speaker, I have been somewhat 
troubled over the issues that we have addressed that have completely 
shut out any opportunity for the minority to participate. The evidence 
of that took place on the last vote that we just went through on the 
very important State children's health insurance plan.
  At this moment, we have the Rules Committee hearing the amendment 
process for the troubled asset rescue package. TARP 2, it's called. 
Unfortunately, there has been no opportunity for minority input on this 
issue. If you look at the votes that we held last week, we had two 
closed rules that came right out of the chute, and they prevented the 
minority from having any opportunity to participate. Then if we go to a 
week ago yesterday, unfortunately, the opening day rules package, from 
my perspective, did shred this Obama vision that has been put forward 
of trying to work in a bipartisan way.
  At this moment, we are dealing with an issue, that being our quest to 
ferret out waste, fraud and abuse and to talk about how we can 
responsibly deal with ensuring that we do not waste taxpayer dollars.
  I commend my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who have 
joined in that effort. This measure is being considered under 
suspension of the rules. We know that everyone is going to be voting in 
favor of it.
  While the Framers of our Constitution wanted there to be a clash of 
ideas, at the end of the day, it is imperative that we come to a 
resolution in a bipartisan way, I believe, if we're going to 
responsibly govern. Let's hope that this resolution designed to deal 
with responsibly ensuring that we do not waste taxpayer dollars is, in 
fact, a model for the future.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Speaker, I would also like to conclude my remarks by 
simply saying this:
  As we know all too well, despite the Blue Dog Coalition's best 
efforts and the efforts of many other efforts on both sides of the 
aisle in this Chamber, cutting spending is never easy, but ladies and 
gentlemen, enough is enough. It is high time that we audit America's 
books. It is a moral imperative that we stop spending taxpayer dollars 
with reckless abandon and start making tough decisions, because the 
choices we make today will impact what we will be able to do to provide 
for our children and for our grandchildren tomorrow.
  I ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this 
commonsense legislation.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support Res. 
40, ``Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to require 
each standing committee to hold periodic hearings on the topic of 
waste, fraud, abuse or mismanagement in Government programs.'' This 
resolution was introduced in the 111th Congress by Congressman John 
Tanner of Tennessee. This resolution provides for greater oversight 
concerning taxpayers' money. It allows for the Congressional standing 
committees to evaluate Government program spending. I urge my 
colleagues to support this resolution. Support of this resolution would 
signal a definite and progressive change in the new Congress and would 
be an important building block for President-elect Barack Obama's 
administration.
  This legislation is important because under the Bush administration 
there has been much waste, fraud, abuse and certainly mismanagement, 
such as Iraqi contract abuses with Halliburton, the mismanagement of 
Katrina, and the overuse of ``cost-plus'' contracting.
  It is of the utmost importance to keep our Government running as 
efficiently and cost effectively as possible. This resolution would 
require each standing committee, or subcommittee thereof, to hold at 
least one hearing during each 120-day period following the 
establishment of the committee on the topic of waste, fraud, abuse, or 
mismanagement in Government programs. Inclusion of a systematic 
approach to oversight in the rules of the House, through this 
resolution, is a key step forward in ensuring that tax dollars are 
spent wisely.
  The 111th Congress will continue to focus on restoring accountability 
and strengthening oversight and has the duty to stop Government waste 
and to become resourceful. During this present time of economic and 
environmental distress, it is imperative that we evaluate our current 
practices and improve upon them.
  As the former governor of Wisconsin Mr. Gaylord Nelson once said, 
``The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to 
sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks 
will not be heard.'' Let us take the first step in eliminating waste 
and do our part for future generations.
  Our constituents have faith in us as members of Congress to use their 
tax dollars prudently and for programs which are practical and 
relevant. We have a duty to oversee those programs which our committees 
authorize and make sure that all funds and resources distributed are 
used in a wise and frugal manner.
  Unfortunately, over the last several years, we have seen massive 
cases of waste, fraud and abuse. A report prepared by the Special 
Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction reportedly labels the Iraq 
reconstruction effort ``a $100 billion failure''--marked by poor 
planning, waste, and deception.
  Congress can no longer turn a blind eye while taxpayer money is 
abused and wasted. We must support H. Res. 40 and continue to implement 
measures which increase oversight if we are to be accountable to the 
people. Again, I urge my colleagues to support this much needed and 
thoughtful legislation. By our support, let us signal to the American 
people that we are a new Congress that has a renewed spirit and 
interest in increasing accountability. Indeed, we are accountable to 
our constituents and to the American people.
  Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, for years I have introduced government waste 
legislation that would set up a commission to identify waste, fraud and 
abuse in the Federal Government. It's similar to the Grace Commission 
of the 1980s. I believe strongly, as does Mr. Tanner, the sponsor of 
the resolution we're debating today, that we have a responsibility to 
oversee the spending of taxpayer money. And clearly, the American 
people feel that we have all abdicated that responsibility, both 
Republicans and Democrats. It is an indisputable fact that Washington 
is excellent at spending money on new programs. It almost never ends 
programs.
  Today we are on the eve of passing a second stimulus bill that may 
cost $1 trillion. These are dollars we don't have. If it does pass, 
with this one bill, Congress will double the already $1 trillion 
deficit. I can remember when we were concerned about the total national 
debt being that large--and now the national debt is $10.6 trillion. 
This debt level is an economic and national security calamity.
  So what are we doing about this? 'We are debating this bill, which 
changes the House rules to require the committees to hold hearings on 
waste, fraud and abuse. That's good, as far as it goes. The Washington 
Post recently editorialized, ``It's easy to find the fat in the federal 
budget. What's hard is getting rid of it.'' One of my committees is 
Foreign Affairs. President-elect Obama has committed to ramping up 
foreign aid spending. With today's resolution, I'm looking forward to 
my committee finding the waste in what we already are spending on 
foreign aid. Then we'll see if Congress does anything about it.
  In selling the trillion dollar stimulus to the American people, the 
President-elect has said, ``We will go through our Federal budget--page 
by page, line by line--eliminating those programs we don't need, and 
insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way.'' 
Despite the strong Washington bias towards spending, despite years of 
failed efforts to end wasteful Government programs, I take our incoming 
President at his word, and wish him well. But it is important to 
realize, even if the President and Congress are successful far beyond 
any level of cutting that has ever been seen, total cutting would pale 
in comparison to the deficit and debt we are wildly running-up. This 
bill, which is the right thing to do, is no offset to the trillion 
dollars this Congress appears set to approve.
  Mr. KRATOVIL. Mr. Speaker, I rise in full support of H. Res. 40 
because I believe that not only is it a good idea for Congress to 
investigate waste, fraud and abuse, but I believe it is our 
Constitutional responsibility to do so.
  The American people have lost faith in this institution. They no 
longer trust Congress to spend their money wisely and have grown 
increasingly cynical about our ability to provide needed oversight.
  They expect us to safeguard their money the same Way we would our own 
children's college funds or our retirement accounts--we must meet this 
expectation.
  The current economic environment demands financial responsibility. We 
can no longer allow our nation's finite resources to be squandered 
while families in our districts are struggling to make ends meet.

[[Page H273]]

  What this resolution does is ensure that Congress is fulfilling one 
of our most basic functions. It calls for at least three hearings a 
year, one every 120 days, on the topic of waste, fraud, abuse and 
mismanagement.
  This is an opportunity to show our constituents that we are serious 
about changing Washington and putting an end to the reckless and 
dangerous spending that in part helped create the unfortunate economic 
environment in which we find ourselves.
  Many of us campaigned that we would come here to do our best to 
change Washington; taking steps to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse is 
a good start.
  This is a good resolution that protects taxpayer dollars. I urge my 
colleagues to support H. Res. 40.
  Mr. DRIEHAUS. Mr. Speaker, the American people sent the 111th 
Congress to Washington based on the promise that we would make 
government work again for every single person in this country. We 
cannot work to fulfill that promise if the government programs that we 
control are riddled with abuse and mismanagement. The reports of waste, 
fraud and abuse that have permeated the Federal Government are 
staggering. If we are going to change the way things are done in 
Washington, our first step must be to clean our own house. We need to 
put in place real oversight so that we can root out the problems where 
they exist. We need increased transparency so that government is held 
accountable by the people it serves. We need to change the business-as-
usual attitude that has led to a culture of corruption and complacency 
in Washington. House Resolution 40 is an important part of our 
commitment to do right by the people who sent us here, and I applaud my 
friends from Tennessee and California for their leadership on this 
issue.
  Mr. CARDOZA. I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Cardoza) that the House suspend the 
rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 40, as amended.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.

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