[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 24604]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          TROUBLING CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING WAR SUPPLEMENTAL

  (Mr. DINGELL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, like many of my colleagues, I am troubled 
about the supplemental which is to come before us today. Like all of 
us, I wish to support our troops. But I am troubled about the fact that 
there have been no legislative hearings on this matter and that the 
authorizing committees have not spoken. I am troubled about mixing 
defense and reconstruction. I am troubled about the way that this 
matter has been handled up to this particular time and about the way 
the administration has used the military to handle the reconstruction, 
which was not done in the time after World War II.
  I am troubled about the need for audits. I am troubled about the fact 
that we have here no protection against sole-source and contracts not 
subject to bidding. I am troubled about the buying of non-American 
goods by the agencies in charge of these things. I am troubled about 
the postal reform that we are going to be financing, or the building of 
the ZIP code for Iraq. Neither is an emergency need for Iraq.
  Why are we funding two prisons at $50,000 a bed. I would suspect that 
Iraqis might very well decide it would be useful either to shoot 
Americans or Iraqis just to get into a prison of that luxurious 
quality. I would note that pickup trucks at $33,000 a piece or trash 
trucks at $50,000 tend to be something that looks fine to the Iraqis, 
but I think not so well to the American taxpayers who are going to be 
footing the bill and giving up programs needed here at home for our 
people.

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