[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3890-3891]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           WASHINGTON WASTE WATCHERS REPORT ON TRANSPORTATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as cofounder of the 
Washington Waste Watchers, a Republican working group dedicated to 
bringing the disinfectant of sunshine into the shadowy corners of the 
wasteful Washington bureaucracy.
  As we speak, Congress is engaged in a debate over spending and the 
Federal budget. With a historically large deficit, Democrats are 
advocating that our answer is to raise taxes on American families. 
Democrats demand that we roll back tax relief, the tax relief that is 
responsible for the strong growth in our economy, the tax relief that 
is bringing down unemployment, the tax relief that amounts to only 1 
percent, 1 percent, of the $28.3 trillion, 10-year spending plan that 
we passed last year.
  In other words, Mr. Speaker, 99 percent of the challenge in dealing 
with our Federal deficit is on the spending side. Clearly we have a 
spending problem, not a taxing problem in America; and I, for one, say 
when it comes to Federal spending, it is time to take out the trash. It 
is time to go after the costly waste, fraud and abuse that permeates 
every nook and cranny of the Federal Government.
  Mr. Speaker, this body will soon take up the issue of transportation 
funding. Transportation is important. It is important to our economy; 
it is important to jobs. But before we sign a huge check drawn on the 
bank account of American families, should we not do everything that we 
can to ensure that every dime of transportation funding goes to roads, 
and not rip-offs?
  Let me give you just a few examples. The Department of Transportation 
has historically squandered the hard-earned money of American families. 
Roughly two-thirds of Boston's ``Big Dig'' central artery is funded by 
Federal tax dollars. This has been called the greatest public works 
scandal of modern times.
  This federally funded project has repeatedly exceeded cost estimates 
and lagged behind schedule. Is that not a surprise? But in the year 
2000, the project was already five times more expensive than planned, 
$11 billion over budget. An investigation revealed that project 
managers consistently were dishonest in their reporting of the project. 
$11 billion of bloated budgets and mismanagement, and yet Democrats 
want to raise our taxes to pay for more of this?
  Today the Federal Government is picking up 80 percent of the cost for 
a $1.4 million project to upgrade just three bus shelters in upstate 
New York. For more than $1 million of American taxpayers' hard-earned 
money, these bus shelters are going to be equipped with ``radiant 
heating systems'' and a layout ``designed to appeal to passengers' 
sense of security.'' Even some of the beneficiaries of these new 
mansion-like bus shelters had concerns with its cost. One of the 
residents said, It just seems like a whole lot of money to me. Maybe 
they could just put some glass doors up.
  American families are lucky if they can afford $150,000 for a home, 
and the Federal Government is going to use their money to pay over 
$370,000 apiece for bus shelters? And yet Democrats want to raise our 
taxes to pay for more of this?
  Another investigation revealed that 29 Federal contracts worth 
roughly $62 million were paid without any knowledge of whether they 
were even legally authorized. $62 million that was not legally 
authorized, and yet Democrats

[[Page 3891]]

want to raise our taxes to pay for more of this?
  Mr. Speaker, these are just a few examples of the rampant waste, 
fraud and abuse and duplication in just one Federal agency. After you 
begin to look closely, you will discover that in many Federal programs, 
routinely they will squander 10, 20, even 30 percent of their taxpayer-
funded budgets, and have for years.
  There are many ways that we can save money in Washington without 
cutting any needed services and without raising taxes on our hard-
working families, as Democrats seek to do. Because when it comes to 
spending, Mr. Speaker, and Federal programs, it is not how much money 
you spend that counts; it is how Washington spends the money.

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