[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
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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
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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.
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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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