[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 177 (Thursday, December 8, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1663]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THWARTING GOVERNMENT WASTE AND REPRIORITIZING AMERICAN TAXPAYER DOLLARS

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                          HON. MARK DeSAULNIER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, December 8, 2016

  Mr. DeSAULNIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the concerning 
$125 billion in bureaucratic waste brought to light by the Washington 
Post this week.
  This article came on the heels of two major votes last week in the 
House of Representatives: an additional $4.8 billion in funding to the 
National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the authorization of $611.2 
billion for the Department of Defense. Considering these measures back-
to-back leads me to put them in context with each other.
  On the one hand, Congress has allocated hundreds of billions of 
dollars to fund a military that is larger than the next seven country's 
combined, including China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United Kingdom, 
India, France, and Japan. On the other hand, we are providing a 
helpful, but relatively minute, sum of money to increase lifesaving 
medical research, educate our nation's youth, and support our first 
responders.
  To then discover that the Pentagon has identified at least $125 
billion in waste further underscores our nation's misguided priorities. 
If just ten percent of the self-identified waste were redirected to the 
NIH, new cures could be found and lives could be saved. In this year's 
Defense Authorization, $1.5 billion is spent to upgrade an aircraft 
carrier that the U.S. Navy had asked to retire. Why not reprioritize 
that money to improve veterans' healthcare or expand access to 
education?
  This gratuitous spending must stop. The American taxpayer deserves to 
know that their hard-earned dollars are going toward promoting American 
values and being reinvested in their wellbeing. It's not just the 
programs that I highlight that deserve a higher priority--it's Medicare 
and Medicaid, it's Social Security, it's social safety net programs--
the list goes on and on. Until we press the Pentagon to undergo a 
rigorous audit, I cannot and will not support bloated spending at the 
Defense Department. The American people deserve more transparency and 
accountability.
  Dwight D. Eisenhower shared my fears and concerns. Our 34th 
President, a five-star general in the United States Army during World 
War II, and Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in 
Europe once said, ``[i]n the councils of government, we must guard 
against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or 
unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the 
disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.''

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