[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 92 (Wednesday, June 10, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3981-S3982]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           WASTEFUL SPENDING

  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, I rise today, the 13th time, for the 
``Waste of the Week.'' So far, we have identified waste in many areas, 
ranging from the familiar, such as the duplication of government 
programs and outrageous spending and lack of control, to the bizarre, 
such as the government-funded massages for New Zealand rabbits. I have 
received more responses on that than I have for some of the major items 
I have listed. Every once in a while, I throw in a ``Can you believe 
they do that?''
  To date, we have estimated nearly $67 billion of fraud, abuse, and 
waste. This is taxpayer money. These are taxpayer dollars that are 
coming in for programs that the Congressional Budget Office, the 
Government Accountability Office, and other special investigators have 
looked at and said: Why are we spending this money in the first place? 
It is a total waste, it is fraud, and it has been abused.
  So we are at the level of nearly two-thirds of our goal of $100 
billion and moving forward.
  And so today, I wish to talk about yet another fiscal situation we 
have come across that is costing the taxpayers the hard-earned dollars. 
They're sending them to Washington and they want accountability. Since 
we are doing debate on the Defense bill this week, I thought I would 
look at the defense issue. I will use contracting accountability as an 
example of the need for another effort to save the taxpayers' dollars 
because they are being wasted.

[[Page S3982]]

  Now, it is not uncommon for every agency of the Federal Government to 
use contractors. The Department of Defense uses contractors. They do 
necessary work. They provide services for our troops overseas. We owe 
our troops, we owe them, given the sacrifices they are making to 
provide those needed services in an effective and efficient way, but we 
also owe the taxpayer clear oversight in terms of how their money is 
spent to make sure that these services that are provided, these tasks 
that are undertaken by defense contractors as well as all Federal 
contractors are done so in an accountable way.
  The issue today arises out of a report by the Special Investigator 
General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. That report identified a total 
of $135 million of questionable costs spent by one specific contractor 
between October 2011 and March 2014. He said that in most cases the 
funds that were spent were not supported with adequate documentation or 
did not have prior approval. In another instance, this same contractor 
also overcharged the government by over $1 million. The government lost 
about $37,000 in interest payments. That is a little bit of change in a 
total of billions of dollars being spent, but nevertheless it is not 
all that small of an amount to a number of Americans who work awfully 
hard to pay their taxes, and they want those taxes to be used wisely.
  Again, this same contractor in three other cases violated Federal 
procurement law in securing contracts totaling almost $5 million.
  So here we have one contractor that has been singled out among many 
but put in place $135 million of questionable costs, and the American 
taxpayers have every right to know how and where their tax dollars are 
spent and particularly those tax dollars which are spent on providing 
our Armed Forces, men and women in uniform, with the necessary services 
they need.
  This was compounded when in 2012 headlines showed that two former 
employees of this particular contractor, in a video, were drunk or 
under the influence of narcotics during parties that were allegedly 
thrown ``every other day'' at the contractor's operations center in 
Kabul. So to compound the problem, not only were the costs questioned, 
but also the character and behavior of the employees were something we 
certainly are not proud of.
  All of this happened, as the video shows, while weapons were present. 
Bonfires were also lit, and employees would often throw live ammunition 
rounds and fire extinguishers into the flames.
  Some might say: Well, OK, that is a one-off. That is an aberration. 
That surely doesn't happen all the time. There is a bad apple here, and 
there are a bunch of good apples in the barrel.
  Yes, there are contractors that are providing services to our men and 
women who are doing it in a responsible and legal way, but the special 
inspector for Afghanistan has also found multiple examples of similar 
types of waste. In fact, since its creation, the special inspector for 
Afghanistan has undertaken 324 investigations--he is a busy man--and 
has accounted for over $571 million of misspent taxpayer dollars, and 
this is just in Afghanistan. As you know, we have operations around the 
world, and when we total everything, who knows what that final number 
will be.
  I am pleased to report that while these numbers are disturbing, there 
is also progress being made. The special investigator for Afghanistan 
whom I have referred to has made over 200 recommendations for reforms 
and over 160 of those recommendations have been adopted by the 
Department of Defense in trying to help safeguard Federal dollars. So I 
don't want to leave the impression that something isn't being done 
about this. Nevertheless, it is important that we bring these things to 
light so that we can put procedures in place that will prevent them 
from happening again.
  Also, I am pleased that title VIII of this bill we are now debating 
on this floor, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 
2016, directly addresses defense acquisition policy and management and 
would make several reforms to the contracting process. So action is 
being taken. For instance, the bill that calls for the Department of 
Defense to establish a preference for fixed-price contracts when 
developing new programs is a needed reform that is part of this 
legislation we are debating now. Entering into fixed-price contracts 
helps eliminate the kinds of questionable costs and cost overruns seen 
in many previous contracts.
  We need to make sure, Congress needs to make sure, all of us need to 
make sure that our service men and women have the support they need to 
defend our Nation. That is why it is so frustrating when we hear about 
these instances of contractors that are supposed to be supporting our 
troops but instead are wasting money, whether intentionally or through 
error or through simply misbehavior.
  So what we have done today is add another $571 million to our 
taxpayer savings gauge. As you can see, we are pushing toward the goal 
of $100 billion. We hope to go past that. There is no end of issues 
that need to be addressed so that we can tell the American people that 
we are running an efficient and effective shop in Congress and that we 
are being careful with their taxpayer dollars.
  I look forward to returning to the floor next week for my next 
installment of the ``Waste of the Week.''
  With that, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, given the fact that no one has come to the 
floor, I wish to speak on another matter. I will do so, and when other 
Members come to the floor to speak, I will try to wrap up and save that 
time for them.

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