[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2661-2667]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1645
                           BLUE DOG COALITION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, this afternoon I rise on behalf of the 44-
member strong fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition.
  Mr. Speaker, as you walk the Halls of Congress, you will notice these 
Blue Dog Coalition posters along the hallways which signify that you 
are walking by the door to an office of a fellow Blue Dog Member. And 
the reason you will find these posters scattered across the Cannon, 
Longworth and Rayburn House Office Buildings is because we are 
committed to restoring common sense and fiscal discipline to our 
Nation's government. And it is important to us, Mr. Speaker, that we 
remind every Member of Congress, as well as the general public that 
walk these Halls, that our Nation is in debt. In fact, the U.S. 
national debt, as of today, is $8,721,415,192,294. And we ran out of 
room on the poster, Mr. Speaker, but 43 cents. Our national debt, 
$8,721,415,192,294.43. That is a big number. What does it mean?
  Well, Mr. Speaker, I will tell you what it means. For every man, 
woman and child living in America, including those children being born 
today, their share of the national debt is $29,093.20. It is what we 
refer to as the debt tax, D-E-B-T. That is one tax that cannot be cut, 
that cannot go away until we get our Nation's fiscal house in order.
  Why is it important? Because our Nation is borrowing about $1 billion 
a day. But, Mr. Speaker, before we borrow $1 billion a day, we are 
going to spend a half a billion dollars paying interest on the debt we 
have already got. And many of America's priorities in the area of 
education, veterans benefits, health care, roads, many of America's 
priorities continue to go unmet and they will until we get our Nation's 
fiscal house in order.
  As members of the Blue Dog Coalition, which is just another name for 
fiscally conservative Democrats, we are concerned about this. But, Mr. 
Speaker, our concerns do not end with the debt and the deficit. We are 
also concerned about accountability, and this Democratic Congress is 
going to restore accountability to this Chamber, to this 
administration, and, yes, to the Government of the United States of 
America.
  The Constitution clearly gives Congress, not only the power and the 
authority, but it is our constitutional duty to provide oversight of 
this administration. And yet this Republican Congress that we have had 
for the past 6 years has been nothing more than a rubber stamp for 
President Bush and his administration.
  It is time that Congress did its job. It is time that Congress put 
the rubber stamp in the drawer and pull out the Constitution and read 
it and understand that we have a duty, a constitutional duty, to 
provide oversight to this administration and to this government. We are 
going to do that. And we are doing it in many areas, including 
providing for accountability for how the hardworking people of this 
country's tax money is being spent in places like Iraq.
  Mr. Speaker, you ask a hundred different people what they think about 
this Iraq war policy, you will get about a hundred different answers. 
And by the way, very few or none of them are going to agree with the 
direction that President Bush is currently going. If you ask fellow 
Blue Dog members, you will get different answers as well. I, 
personally, am opposed to the surge. Others may not be. That is 
something that we believe each Member must make a decision on and speak 
from their heart and represent their constituency.
  But one of the things that we are united on as Blue Dog members is 
restoring accountability for how this money is being spent in Iraq.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to show here a couple of numbers that are very 
important. One is the cost of the Iraq war. They spent $2.5 billion 
pre-invasion in 2001 and 2002. In 2003, $51 billion was spent. In 2004, 
$77.3 billion was spent. In 2005, $87.3 billion was spent. In 2006, 
$100.4 billion. 2007, to date, we are getting ready to vote on another 
supplemental appropriation bill for the war, but to date, $60 billion. 
That puts the total cost to the taxpayers of America at nearly $400 
billion, $378.5 billion.
  Now, what does that mean? That is a lot of money. How do you break it 
out? The total cost for 2006 alone, $100.4 billion. That is $8.44 
billion per month of your tax money, Mr. Speaker, going to Iraq.
  Another way of putting it, $275 million a day, or about 11 or $12 
million per hour. And yet there has been a lack of accountability on 
how your tax money is being accounted for and how it is being spent in 
Iraq.
  So we, Mr. Speaker, have what is called House Resolution 97 that we 
have filed as members of the Blue Dog Coalition. And it is a resolution 
to provide for Operation Iraqi Freedom cost accountability. And let me 
just get to the meat of it. Basically, the resolution says this: that 
within 30 days after the adoption of this resolution, and every 90 days 
thereafter, the Department of Defense Inspector General and the Special 
Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction shall prepare and transmit to 
Congress an unclassified report with a classified annex, if necessary, 
that would contain, one, a detailed accounting of how military and 
reconstruction funds in Iraq have been spent thus far; two, a detailed 
accounting of the types and terms of contracts awarded on behalf of the 
United States, including the methods by which such contracts were 
awarded and contractors selected; three, a description of efforts to 
obtain support and assistance from other countries toward the 
rehabilitation of Iraq; and, four, an assessment of what additional 
funds is needed to complete military operations and reconstruction 
efforts in Iraq, including a plan for security of Iraq, a detailed plan 
for how any future funds will be spent and a statement of how those 
funds will advance the interests of the United States and Iraq.
  If either Inspector General fails to submit a quarterly report, the 
Government Accountability Office shall conduct an audit and report to 
Congress. Sanctions shall be imposed against contractors who have 
engaged in fraud or abuse or war profiteering. Congress should create a 
Truman-like committee to conduct an ongoing study and investigation of 
the awarding and carrying out of contracts by the United States to 
conduct activities with regard to Operation Iraqi Freedom and make such 
recommendations to the House as the Select Committee deems appropriate.
  Funding requests for Operation Iraqi Freedom in fiscal year 2008 and 
beyond must come through the regular appropriations process and not be 
hidden through these so-called emergency supplementals. In furtherance 
of the partnership that is critical to success in Operation Iraqi 
Freedom, the administration should firmly condition further American 
financial, military and political resources upon steady improvement in 
Iraq, assumption of principal responsibility for internally policing 
Iraq.
  In other words, Mr. Speaker, this resolution says that it is time for 
this administration to be accountable for how the hardworking people of 
this country's tax money is being spent in Iraq, no more rubber stamps 
for this administration. We will fulfill our constitutional duty of 
providing oversight.
  And it also says, Mr. Speaker, that the President should do all he 
can to get Iraq to take responsibility for their own actions and to 
take the lead on trying to restore order to that country.
  And it also says that this administration must be held accountable 
for how your tax money is being spent, that there should be 
transparency to the process, and full disclosure of who is getting paid 
to do what in Iraq when it comes to private contractors, and to make 
sure that this war profiteering in Iraq by private contractors comes to

[[Page 2662]]

an end. That is basically what the resolution says.
  Mr. Speaker, every one of us in the Blue Dog Coalition, and I think 
every one of us in this Congress, Democrat and Republican alike, 
supports our troops. We can't do enough for our troops. And I can tell 
you, as far as I am concerned, as long as we have men and women in 
uniform in harm's way, I am going to do my part to ensure that we 
provide them the resources they need to get the job done as safely as 
possible.
  But it is also important that this Congress fulfill its 
constitutional oversight responsibility and demand that this 
administration be accountable for how your tax money, some $275 million 
a day, is being spent in Iraq. And there are reports that indicate that 
at least 20 percent of the money going to Iraq cannot be accounted for.
  Think what we could do to provide health care benefits, housing 
benefits and other benefits for our veterans. And in Iraq and 
Afghanistan we have got a new generation of veterans coming home, and 
we have got to be there for them as a country. We cannot do enough for 
our men and women in uniform. We cannot do enough for our veterans. We 
have got to be there for them.
  We have also got to be sure that this money, some $100.4 billion in 
2006 that this administration is sending to Iraq, is accounted for and 
that it is being spent in support of our soldiers and that we have the 
resources to take care and to honor our veterans, including a new 
generation of veterans coming home today from Iraq and Afghanistan.
  A number of fellow Blue Dog members will be joining me this evening 
as we talk about providing for Operation Iraqi Freedom cost 
accountability. And one of those who has joined me is a fellow Blue Dog 
member, someone that is very active in the Blue Dogs, was a member of 
our nominating committee for officers earlier this year, and that is 
the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Chandler). And I yield to the 
gentleman from Kentucky.
  Mr. CHANDLER. Mr. Speaker, I am happy to be here this afternoon to 
join the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross) to talk a little bit about 
what is obviously a very, very important subject to the American 
people, the subject of accountability.
  Now, Mr. Ross talked a little bit about the national debt. He had a 
sign up which, as he said, Blue Dog offices all over the Capitol have 
up, showing what the national debt of this country is, and the fact 
that each and every American citizen owes over $29,000 just to pay off 
the national debt.
  Now, I don't usually, or very often, come down here to join Mr. Ross 
in what I do think is a worthy goal, and that is educating the American 
people on our financial situation in this country. But I could not 
resist today. Being a former State auditor in the Commonwealth of 
Kentucky, I am a little bit familiar with the issue of accountability. 
And you talk about this debt, the fact that it is as large as it is, 
the fact that our people owe, each and every one of them, over $29,000 
to pay it off, well, your next question is well, what are we going to 
do about it? What are we going to do about this debt?
  Well, one of the very first things that we can do about this debt is 
demand accountability in the spending. And one of the glaring examples 
that we have got is the lack of oversight, the lack of accountability 
in the spending on the war in Iraq. The numbers are huge; almost $280 
million a day is what we are spending in Iraq.
  Now, the Blue Dogs have made a decision to have a resolution which 
will show our interest in making sure that this war and the government 
of this country is accountable for the taxpayer dollars spent in this 
war. What we have done is, as Mr. Ross laid out, proposed a resolution 
that is called the Operation Iraqi Freedom Cost Accountability 
Resolution. And the resolution focused on several crucial points in 
demanding fiscal responsibility in Iraq.
  The main points, the most crucial, I think, are, one, a call for 
transparency on how Iraq war funds are spent. I think another important 
point is the need to fund the Iraq war through normal appropriations, 
through that process, rather than through emergency supplemental. The 
third point that I believe is crucial, and one that I want to touch on 
a little bit today, is the creation of the Truman committee to 
investigate the awarding of contracts.
  Now, what we want to do, the Blue Dogs, what we are calling for is 
the creation of a modern-day Truman committee for this war, for 
expenditures in this war in particular, because, in my opinion, you 
cannot talk about accountability in this war without talking about the 
need for this kind of committee, a Truman committee.
  Now, in 1940, Congress prepared for the eventual involvement of the 
United States of America in World War II by allocating $10 billion in 
defense contracts. Early in 1941, stories of contractor mismanagement 
reached the desk of, at that time a Missouri Senator, a future 
President of the United States of America, Harry S Truman. Truman, when 
he saw this information, decided to take action and find out for 
himself if this mismanagement of funds was, in fact, true. He took a 
10,000-mile tour of military bases and discovered that certain 
contractors were getting a greater share of contracts available and 
that other contractors were getting paid full price for work that was 
either poor or inefficient. In short, what he discovered was rampant 
waste and mismanagement in government war contracts.

                              {time}  1700

  Does that sound familiar?
  Well, as a result of his findings, Harry Truman went back to 
Washington and called for a special Senate committee to investigate. 
They got a lot of criticism. Many immediately criticized the Missouri 
Senator saying that his efforts might hurt war morale, while others 
thought that President Roosevelt ought to welcome this committee since 
it was being headed by a member of his own party and, therefore, would 
not be used for political gain.
  Well, by unanimous consent on March 1, 1941, the Senate created what 
has proved to be the most famous and, in my judgment, the most 
successful committee of its time. The Truman Committee, with a budget 
of a mere $15,000 at the time, saved our country in excess of $15 
billion; and in the early 1940s, $15 billion was real money. Up here 
some of the people don't think it is these days, but it was big money 
to be saved.
  Now, don't you think that we could use a Truman Committee today? It 
seems pretty obvious to me.
  The United States has allocated some $50 billion to private 
contractors for reconstruction in the rebuilding efforts in Iraq since 
the beginning of the war, and despite this $50 billion expenditure on 
these contracts, we hear a lot of reports of mismanagement or certainly 
of inefficiency and not getting the job done that we expected to see 
done.
  For instance, only 25 percent of Iraqis have access to clean water. 
And prior to the war the Iraqis had electricity for an average of 16 to 
24 hours a day, now that number is down to about 4.3 hours per day.
  $17 billion of the $50 billion that has been given in contracts has 
been given through no-bid contracts to Halliburton, just to one 
company.
  There were over 14,000 weapons by the United States of America, 
bought by our taxpayers and intended for Iraqi troops. Those 14,000 
weapons are now missing.
  And in addition to that, over $8.8 billion of Iraqi reconstruction 
funds are simply unaccounted for by the Coalition Provisional 
Authority.
  Mr. Speaker, we desperately need a modern-day Truman Committee to 
bring some accountability to this war. We have got to stop the 
bleeding. We have got to stop this expenditure from continuing to be 
wasteful. We have got to find out firsthand what is going on with the 
spending in Iraq. We owe it to the taxpayers of this country, we owe it 
to the troops who are fighting this war.
  We owe it so much to the troops. This is money that the troops need 
for their welfare in Iraq that is being diverted through the wasteful 
spending of those who are going to be financing this war. We owe it to 
them to stop the

[[Page 2663]]

mishandling, stop the mismanagement of money in Iraq.
  I strongly support this Blue Dog effort to have a cost accountability 
ethic relative to the war in Iraq because it is past time, way past 
time to hold the leaders of this country accountable for the money they 
spend in Iraq.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time to the gentleman for 
Arkansas, and I thank him for all of his efforts on behalf of 
accountability to the taxpayers in this country.
  Mr. ROSS. I thank the gentleman from Kentucky, former State auditor, 
former State attorney general for his leadership within the fiscally 
conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, and someone who played an 
important role in helping us draft this resolution, House Resolution 
97. And I certainly thank him for helping sponsor this resolution that, 
hopefully, we will get through the House to demand accountability, 
fiscal responsibility and accountability for how this administration 
spends billions of tax money, Mr. Speaker, in a place a long way from 
Arkansas and a long way from America, and that is in Iraq.
  And I couldn't help but think when the gentleman from Kentucky was 
talking about accountability, I think it is important to note that 
Congress has appropriated over $25 billion to various departments and 
agencies for reconstruction projects that are intended to improve the 
lives and living standards of the Iraqi people, and, yes, to endear 
them to our way of life; and yet we find that only half the projects 
have been completed.
  For example, the Special Inspector General for Iraq reconstruction 
reported that funds allocated for health care projects, health care 
projects, are more than 65 percent expended--that is, the funds--but 
fewer than 36 percent of the projects have been completed. Funds were 
allocated for construction of 142 primary health care clinics and only 
20 were completed.
  Likewise, the Inspector General reported that a contract was made to 
construct 20 rehabilitation hospitals, and only 12 were completed.
  A New York Times report found that thousands of weapons intended for 
Iraqi forces, the good guys in Iraq, our allies in Iraq, are missing. 
This study investigated 19, count them, 19 contracts that totaled $133 
million for more than 370,000 weapons. No one knows where these weapons 
are. Three hundred seventy thousand weapons in Iraq, bought with U.S. 
tax money, are missing, and no one can account for them.
  We need accountability in Iraq.
  Mr. CHANDLER. Mr. Ross, do you have any idea why this situation has 
occurred? Do you know why? Do you have answers? Do any of you have 
answers at this point?
  Mr. ROSS. Because this Republican Congress for the past 6 years did 
not fulfill its constitutional duty of providing oversight of this 
administration and the Department of Defense. There was no oversight. 
It was rubber stamp after rubber stamp, and more money after more 
money, and no accountability.
  Mr. CHANDLER. It doesn't matter, in my view, which party is in 
control. If we had a Democratic President, I believe that a Democratic 
Congress ought to hold that administration accountable just like Truman 
did in World War II. We have had a Republican Congress that simply has 
not held this Republican administration accountable. That is just 
simply a loss for the taxpayers. That is all you can say.
  Mr. ROSS. The gentleman is right. It shouldn't matter if it is a 
Democratic Congress or a Republican Congress, the American people are 
sick and tired of all the partisan bickering. What the American people 
want is for us to provide leadership and accountability on how their 
tax money is being spent. And I can assure you, Mr. Speaker, that as 
members of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, we 
are going to do our part to hold this administration accountable to 
find out where in the world this $133 million of your tax money, Mr. 
Speaker, that went to purchase 370,000 weapons, what happened to them.
  It doesn't matter if there is a Democratic President or a Republican 
President, the gentleman from Kentucky is absolutely right, what 
matters is being accountable and being good stewards of the tax money 
of the people of this country.
  I yield to the gentleman from Kentucky.
  Mr. CHANDLER. It is the least that we can do for the people of this 
country.
  Mr. ROSS. And for the troops.
  Mr. CHANDLER. And for the troops.
  You mentioned a very important word, and that word is stewardship. 
That is what we owe to the people of this country, we owe them 
stewardship. We must be good stewards. And job one is to take care of 
their hard-earned resources that they send up here to Washington. And 
in this case, we are sending an incredible amount of those resources 
over to Iraq and nobody is watching what is happening with them. Nobody 
is holding that process accountable.
  And I want to thank the gentleman from Arkansas for his efforts to 
bring light to this subject. I think it is very, very important. We 
need to continue to talk about this until something is done.
  I am glad to see my colleague here from Georgia (Mr. Scott), who I 
know has come down here on a number of occasions to talk about this 
subject. He is a fine, fine member of our coalition. I am glad to be 
here with Mr. Scott, and I know he has a word or two to say about this 
also.
  Mr. ROSS. I want to thank the gentleman from Kentucky for joining us 
today. And, Mr. Speaker, if you have any questions comments or concerns 
for Mr. Scott or any of us, you can e-mail us at 
BlueD[email protected].
  And it is a pleasure for me to be joined by a real leader within the 
Blue Dog Coalition, someone that demands fiscal responsibility and 
accountability, someone who is helping us with this House Resolution 
97, a cosponsor of it, someone that helped author it, and a member of 
the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Mr. Chandler, and that is my friend, 
the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott).
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Thank you so much. And thank you for those kind 
words you said about me. I appreciate it. And I would have called my 
mom, because she would have loved to hear those words, too.
  You know, over this weekend, I did a couple of things when I was 
home. One was that I really got into the Constitution of the United 
States. I really got into that section in article I, section 8, that 
clearly gives us the exclusive responsibility as Congress to raise and 
support armies.
  It is clear as a bell there. It gives it to us, it does not give it 
to the White House or the President or the executive branch. It gives 
it to Congress. And up until now we have failed the American people. 
The large measure of this--you touched upon it earlier, Mr. Ross, but 
this Republican-led Congress has just completely rolled over and 
allowed this President to fund this war on emergency supplementals, 
which means that we in Congress cannot conduct the constitutionally 
required oversight to do what the Constitution wanted us to do.
  Now, that is why we are in this situation we are in, and I would like 
to talk for a moment on two points.
  When I was home, the other thing I did was I got around and I had 
some great interaction with my constituents out in Cobb County and 
Douglas County and in Clayton County and in Henry County. We all had 
town hall meetings, we had my office open. I mean, we had Chamber of 
Commerce annual dinners.
  That is a great opportunity for folks to just come up to you and let 
you know exactly how they feel. And I can tell you, Mr. Ross, they are 
proud to see us on this floor, offering this bill. This is not just a 
resolution that is nonbinding. We are going to have those that voice 
our opinion about this war, they are going to be voted on up or down.
  Everybody knows my personal feelings about the mistake of this surge, 
but this resolution that we have carries a tremendous amount of weight. 
That is why I care about it so much. And I want to share with the 
American people exactly what it is in this resolution that we are doing 
and why it is

[[Page 2664]]

needed and why, finally, this resolution provides a direct link and 
connection with what the Founding Fathers wrote in article I, section 
8, of the Constitution over 200 years ago that we have the exclusive 
right to determine how we will manage.
  Now, why do we need that?
  The other thing I did over this weekend was, I read my home 
newspaper, the Atlanta Journal Constitution. And in there there was an 
extraordinary article by the Associated Press that I would like to make 
a part of this Record because this article points out the very need for 
this measure that we in the Blue Dog Coalition are pushing.
  This article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution was written John 
Heilprin with the Associated Press. The title of it was this: 
Contractors Investigated After Army Fraud Alleged. Just listen to this, 
America. ``From high dollar fraud to conspiracy to bribery and bid-
rigging, Army investigators have opened up to 50 criminal probes 
involving battlefield contractors in the war in Iraq and the U.S. fight 
against terrorism.''

                              {time}  1715

  What an opening sentence, what a declarative issue we have here.
  It goes on to say, senior contracting officials, government 
employees, residents of other countries, and in some cases U.S. 
military personnel themselves have been implicated in millions of 
dollars of fraud allegations. ``All of these involve operations in 
Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait,'' Chris Grey, a spokesman for the U.S. 
Army Criminal Investigation Command, confirmed just this past Saturday. 
``The agents will pursue leads into truth wherever it takes us. We take 
this very seriously.''
  Here is the point. Battlefield contractors have been implicated in 
allegations of fraud and abuse since the United States invaded Iraq in 
the spring of 2003. Any wonder why this has happened? Because the 
Congress did not apply the oversight, because this Republican Congress 
just simply rubber-stamped everything.
  The Special Inspector General's Office, focusing solely on 
reconstruction spending, has developed cases that have led to four 
criminal convictions. The problems stem in part from the Pentagon's 
struggle to get a handle on the unprecedented number of contractors now 
helping run the Nation's wars, and these contractors are used in battle 
zones to do nearly everything but fight. But they can war-profiteer, 
they can commit fraud, they can commit bribery, and they can abuse the 
taxpayers' money on the backs of our good, brave soldiers that are 
putting their lives on the line for much less than what these 
contractors are making.
  They run the cafeterias, the laundries for the troops. They move 
supplies, run communication systems and repair weapons systems.
  Special agents from the Army's Major Procurement Fraud Unit were 
recently dispatched to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait where they are 
working closely and sharing information. One case involves an Army 
chief warrant officer accused of taking $50,000 in bribes to steer a 
contract for paper products and plastic flatware away from a government 
contractor to a Kuwaiti company, according to an indictment.
  The Government Accountability Office reported in December that the 
military has been losing millions of dollars, and contractors are being 
investigated because it cannot monitor industry workers in far-flung 
locations. It summarizes this way: Commanders are often unsure how many 
contractors even use their bases or even require the food and housing 
protection, according to one report. One Army official quoted said, 
``The service estimates losing $43 million each year just on free meals 
that are provided.'' That is why this bill is important.
  Let me just mention specifically how this bill will help prevent and 
address this glaring situation that was reported in the Atlanta Journal 
Constitution by the Associated Press, John Heilprin, who I commend for 
doing an excellent job. Our bill will require, within 30 days of 
passage, that every 90 days hereafter the Department of Defense 
Inspector General and the Special Inspector General for Iraqi 
Reconstruction shall prepare and transmit to Congress an unclassified 
report, but with a classified annex, if necessary, that will contain 
the following:
  One, a detailed accounting of how military and reconstruction funds 
in Iraq have been spent thus far;
  Two, a detailed accounting of the types and terms of contracts 
awarded on behalf of the United States, including the methods by which 
such contracts were awarded and contractors selected;
  Three, it will require a description of efforts to obtain support and 
assistance from other countries during the rehabilitation of Iraq;
  Four, an assessment of what additional funding is needed to complete 
military operations and reconstruction efforts in Iraq, including a 
plan for security of Iraq, a detailed plan for how any future funds 
will be spent, and a statement of how those funds will advance the 
interests of the United States in Iraq.
  If either inspector general fails to submit a quarterly report, the 
Government Accountability Office shall conduct an audit and report to 
Congress. Sanctions will be imposed against contractors who have 
engaged in fraud or abuse or war profiteering, and we will create the 
Truman Committee that Mr. Chandler spoke to earlier.
  Funding requests for operations in Iraqi Freedom in fiscal year 2008 
and beyond must come through the regular appropriations process and not 
through these emergency supplementals that are explicitly designed to 
bypass oversight. That is why we have the problems we have here; and 
also, that is why there was not enough money put in the budget when we 
sent our Armed Forces over there 3 years ago, as you recall, the news 
reports where many of our soldiers were digging in dung heaps and 
landfills trying to get body armor for them.
  No. No more. This Blue Dog resolution addresses that, and I would 
expect an extraordinarily large vote in getting it passed.
  And it is so good to be on the floor with my good friend, Mr. Ross, 
and also my good friend, Mr. Israel from New York, who we serve 
together, both as cochairs on our Democratic Group on National 
Security. And we have been addressing these issues. So it is just a 
pleasure to be on the floor with you. I hope with this story and this 
Associated Press Atlanta Journal Constitution report, it will show the 
American people why we need the specific legislation and the importance 
in getting some accountability passed concerning our war funding.
  Mr. ROSS. I thank the gentleman from Georgia, a fellow Blue Dog 
member, a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, for joining us to 
discuss the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition's House 
Resolution 97 that provides for Operation Iraqi Freedom cost 
accountability.
  The Constitution clearly gives Congress oversight authority, and this 
Congress, this new Democratic Congress, is going to provide oversight 
of this administration, of this government, and fulfill our 
constitutional duty and demand that our troops get the money they need 
to get the job done as safely as possible; but also demand that it be 
done in a way to where this administration is held accountable for how, 
Mr. Speaker, your tax money is being spent in Iraq.
  I recently received an e-mail from a soldier from my hometown. He 
wrote to me in an e-mail from Iraq, and there are a couple of points I 
would like to point out. I am quoting this soldier now in Iraq. 
``Needless to say, war profiteering is high, and disgusting to witness 
as a taxpayer.'' This is a citizen soldier, this is a soldier that 
comes to us from the Army Reserve. He has now been in Iraq 7 months. 
And in his e-mail to me he said, ``Needless to say, war profiteering is 
high, and disgusting to witness as a taxpayer.''
  He goes on to say, ``And the black market thrives over here as well. 
For example, much of the fuel never reaches the military; it ends up in 
the wrong hands through a complex network of interconnected 
relationships that truly reminds me of the Mafia.''

[[Page 2665]]

  Another example from a soldier on the ground in Iraq that has been 
there 7 months about the need for accountability for how tax money, 
some $400 billion so far, some 20 percent of that $400 billion is 
unaccounted for, according to the most recent reports.
  As members of the Blue Dog Coalition, we are offering up a resolution 
to demand that this money, your tax money, Mr. Speaker, be accounted 
for in how it is being spent in support of our soldiers in Iraq. And 
you know what? We might just find enough waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq 
that we could take that money and invest it in veterans' benefits, to 
ensure that our men and women coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan are 
properly cared for.
  With that, I yield to a gentleman that knows a lot about this 
subject, a gentleman that is not only a very important member of the 
Blue Dog Coalition, but someone who served on the House Armed Services 
Committee, someone who now serves on the Foreign Operations 
Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, and that is the 
gentleman from Long Island (Mr. Israel).
  Mr. ISRAEL. I thank my good friend for his leadership in the Blue 
Dogs, his leadership in the Congress, and my good friend from Georgia 
who, as he noted, cochairs with me the Democratic Study Group on 
National Security, which is intended to ensure that this Congress and 
Democrats in Congress continue to lead the fight on behalf of our 
troops, to lead the fight on behalf of our national security. We were 
founded in the acknowledgement that we need a robust, muscular military 
to protect us from the threats that are out there.
  I think this topic is critically important, the topic of war 
profiteering. And who pays the price for war profiteering? Our 
taxpayers pay the price, our troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the 
world pay the price. But there is another group that is paying the 
price, and I would like to address that this evening, our National 
Guard units at home.
  This morning there was a report in the National Journal's Congress 
Daily. It was headlined, National Guard May Lack Needed Gear to Deal 
With Domestic Crisis, GAO Says. And the report raises questions about 
whether the State-run National Guard units have adequate supplies to 
respond to disasters and emergencies on U.S. soil. It says it will 
remain unclear whether the Guard is equipped to respond effectively to 
the consequences of a large-scale terrorist attack or natural disaster.
  The article in the National Journal states, ``Over the last several 
months, many State Guard leaders have complained that their unit took 
their best equipment with them when they deployed to Iraq, leaving the 
personnel at home short of trucks, radios and other equipment needed 
for domestic missions. Indeed, Lieutenant General Steven Blum, chief of 
the Pentagon's National Guard Bureau, told Congress last year that at 
least two-thirds of his units in the United States are not combat 
ready.''
  Now this, to me, is just incredible that Halliburton made money, that 
these contractors made money. In my view, they gouged the military, 
gouged our taxpayers, marked up the services they provided, and 
National Guard units at home are short of the equipment they need.
  I represent a district on Long Island. The World Trade Center was 40 
miles from my hometown. We know what terrorism is like. We needed our 
emergency responders when that happened. We are likely to need them 
again, the gentleman from Georgia knows that very well. But when two-
thirds of their equipment is sitting in Iraq, that creates a very 
serious problem. That is the cost of war profiteering.
  Now, I understand the exigencies of war and I understand that when 
you go to war, you know, you have to make sure that your troops have 
everything they need, and there are all sorts of funding issues; but my 
goodness, Secretary Rumsfeld said, You go to war not with the Army you 
want but with the Army you have. You have got to budget for that Army. 
You never send people into war unequipped, underfunded, underequipped 
without the right number of coagulant bandages, without the right 
number of night vision goggles and up-armored Humvees.
  If they found the money to pay these contractors that ripped us off, 
they can find the money to make sure that our National Guard units have 
the equipment they need. If they found the money to pay the excessive 
bills of these contractors so that they could raise their bottom lines, 
they could find the money to raise the equipment that the National 
Guard needs for the mission-critical equipment that will be required--
not just in an act of terrorism, by the way, but when we have a major 
hurricane as we did with Katrina.
  Long Island stands a very good chance of suffering a Category 3 
hurricane or more. And it is going to be very difficult for me to 
explain to my constituents that they didn't have the National Guard 
equipment resources that they were depending on to respond to a 
Category 3 hurricane because that equipment was in Iraq; but 
Halliburton got what it wanted, its CEO got the salary increase he 
needed.
  This isn't very complicated. We are short-funding our troops in Iraq 
and Afghanistan; we are undersupplying our National Guard units at 
home. The big corporations who are contracted as part of this war are 
making more money than ever. And there are still companies in the 
United States that can register their international headquarters at a 
P.O. Box in Bermuda so they can avoid their fair share of taxes at 
home. That is a disgrace.
  It is time for accountability. It is time for oversight. It is time 
to put our money where our mouths are. It is time to quit talking about 
funding our troops here and abroad and then not giving them the 
resources they need.
  The Blue Dogs believe in fiscal accountability. We take second place 
to nobody when it comes to supporting our troops and supporting our 
military, to nobody. But we also understand that you can't say you are 
doing that; you have got to actually do it. You can't fight a war 
abroad, short-fund our troops there and be left with degraded National 
Guard units at home. It is time for accountability, for oversight. It 
is time for a different direction, and that is precisely what the Blue 
Dogs are going to insist on.
  I thank the gentleman for recognizing me.
  Mr. ROSS. I thank the gentleman from Long Island for his insight on 
this resolution to put an end to war profiteering and demand 
accountability on how the American people, the hardworking American 
people's tax money is being spent in Iraq.
  I yield back to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott).
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. I want to build on the point that my good 
friend from New York (Mr. Israel) talked about.
  It was very important when James Madison wrote into the Constitution 
the words, ``Raise and support the Army is the exclusive domain of the 
Members of Congress.''

                              {time}  1730

  There was a reason for that. The reason was because Members of 
Congress, unlike the President, unlike the Senate, my good friends in 
the Senate, it is the Members of Congress that are closest to the 
people. Every other year we must run, and that is why they put it in 
there that if we are going to war, yes, we will spread this authority, 
some of that as Commander in Chief to the executive branch, but we must 
have a check and a balance. They put that in the bosom of the Congress, 
which has to go back before the people every other year and be 
accountable.
  I am here to tell you the people of the United States are looking to 
this Congress. They are looking for us to bring some accountability to 
it. They are looking for us to be fair and understand what is at the 
core of this.
  You know what is at the core of this is the soldier. When is somebody 
going to look at this war from the standpoint of that soldier that we 
are sending to Iraq now and placing in the cross hairs of a civil war, 
a questionable gambit at best?

[[Page 2666]]

  The President of the United States does not have to run again. He can 
have all the surges he wants. He can do everything he wants. His 
concern now is building his legacy. He has his right to do whatever he 
wants to do, but the one thing he does not have to do, he does not have 
to go and face the American people again. We do. That is why Madison 
gave us the arbitrary decision to raise and support the military.
  So when the Bush administration made the decision to use large 
numbers of these private contractors that were talked about on the 
battlefield in Iraq, it now has had somewhat of a perverse effect of 
incentivizing highly trained special operation force personnel to leave 
the Armed Forces. They are there voluntarily, in order to work as some 
of these contractors for much higher pay.
  There is so much just built into this for war profiteering, but here 
is a statistic that we have got to be concerned about. We have got to 
look at this hardship on the soldier. These are not 21,500 other 
soldiers just sitting over there waiting. These soldiers are going, 
many of them, on their third and fourth tour of duties. We have a 
situation where we are running the military in the ground, and no more 
pointed example of that is this startling, disturbing and tragic 
information that has been handed to me by the National Security 
Advisory Group. Listen to this:
  Between 2001 and 2004, divorce rates among active duty Army officers 
tripled and rates among Army enlisted soldiers grew, divorce rates by 
50 percent, as deployments lengthened and with increased frequency as 
they are doing now. These divorce rates have served to underscore the 
severity of the strains on the active duty personnel and their 
families, and similarly, incidents of domestic violence increased over 
the same period. There is wear and tear not just on the equipment that 
we talked about, not just on not having the bulletproof vests or the 
Humvees riding around; it is wear and tear on the hearts and souls of 
our soldiers. It is too much of a strain, and we have got to correct 
this situation.
  These and other warning signs have caused some commanders to fear 
that personnel who were willing to undertake successive deployments as 
part of, and they use these words, part of the surge cannot sustain 
this tempo of operations over the long term. If they do so, it will be 
at the adverse impact on their families.
  How much more do we want to ask of our soldiers? I would tell you one 
thing, this Blue Dog resolution is dedicated to giving our soldiers the 
respect that they are due. We are going to make sure that the money we 
appropriate in here goes to them, and we are going to make doubly sure 
that we can end this situation in Iraq quickly and bring our soldiers 
home to their families.
  Mr. ROSS. I thank the gentleman from Georgia for his heartfelt 
comments.
  This war has had an impact on just about every family in America; and 
my brother-in-law, who is in the United States Air Force, career, is 
now in Kurdistan, which is one of the entry points to Afghanistan.
  My first cousin, his wife, gave birth to their first child while he 
was in Iraq, and it has had a tremendous toll on the families, and not 
only for the military but also the citizen soldier, those who serve as 
members of a National Guard and as a member of an Army reserve.
  When the President talks about a surge, when the President talks 
about adding another 21,500 troops to Iraq, that is code for calling 
back up the National Guard and the Reserves. Many folks in the National 
Guard today have been sent out of country at historic levels. In many 
instances, the citizen soldiers, those in the Guard, have been called 
up more times than some soldiers that are in the full-time military as 
a career. It has a tremendous toll on the family, the families that are 
left behind, and a huge increase in the number of divorces that occur 
when they come back.
  The bottom line is we are creating a generation of veterans in Iraq 
and Afghanistan, and we can sit here and talk about being patriotic and 
supporting our soldiers all night long, but what is important is that 
we cast our votes in a way that honors them and ensures that they have 
health care and the things they need when they come back so hopefully 
we can minimize the number of divorces. We cannot do enough to thank 
our men and women in uniform for their service to our country.
  One of the ways I think we can honor them is by demanding 
accountability for how tax money is being spent in Iraq, not only in 
the rebuilding efforts but also in support of them, making sure those 
men and women in uniform have the resources they need to stay safe 
while they are there.
  Mr. Speaker, if you have got any comments, questions or concerns for 
us, I would encourage you to e-mail us at [email protected]. 
Again, that is [email protected].
  The gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Chandler) was talking about 
Halliburton earlier. Let me just make this quick point and I want to 
yield to the gentleman from Long Island, but last year, the Special 
Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction reported that the Coalition 
Provisional Authority could not track over $8 billion it had 
transferred to Iraqi ministries and that CPA officials left millions of 
dollars in cash unsecured in their offices.
  Halliburton failed to complete required work under its oil 
infrastructure work, leaving distribution points unusable. Auditors in 
one region found that contract managers could not account for $97 
million disbursed from the development fund for Iraq.
  Under its no-bid contract to rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure 
contract, Halliburton overcharged by over 600 percent for the delivery 
of fuel from Kuwait. An audit of programs designed to train guards to 
protect Iraq's oil and electrical infrastructure concluded that U.S. 
agencies could not provide reasonable assurance that $147 million 
expended under these programs was used for its intended purpose.
  In one case, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction 
found that a company which was awarded a security management contract 
worth hundreds of millions of dollars could provide no assurance that 
it was providing the best possible safety for government and 
reconstruction personnel as required by the contract and could not even 
show that its employees, authorized to carry weapons, were trained to 
use those weapons.
  Halliburton tripled the cost of hand towels, hand towels at taxpayer 
expense, by insisting on having its own embroidered logo on each towel, 
and Halliburton employees dumped 50,000 pounds of nails in the desert. 
Why? Because they ordered the wrong size, all at taxpayer expense 
because it was a cost-plus contract.
  Halliburton double charged tax payers for $617,000 worth of soda and 
charged taxpayers for services that it never provided and tens of 
thousands of meals that it never served our soldiers.
  That is why, Mr. Speaker, we have filed H. Res. 97 to demand 
accountability on how tax money is being spent in Iraq, and I yield to 
the gentleman from Long Island.
  Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I would just close with one point.
  I want to echo what the gentleman from Georgia has said. This soldier 
comes first. If you go into fight a global war on terror you better 
make sure the fighters have everything they need. Do not ask them to 
stand in line behind the corporate executives at Halliburton. Do not 
ask them to stand in line behind the CEO of Exxon Mobil who got a huge 
tax cut on top of his bonus, on top of his huge salary. Do not ask them 
to stand in line behind the big pharmaceutical companies that also got 
a windfall from the government in the Medicare part D program, despite 
their record-breaking profits.
  The gentleman from Georgia and the gentleman from Arkansas and I 
believe more than anything else that our primary obligation in this 
place, in this House, is to support our Armed Forces and to keep this 
Nation safe. That takes the right priorities.
  In the past, the priorities have been wrong. How do I know? Two-
thirds of our National Guard units do not have the equipment they need 
to respond to

[[Page 2667]]

an emergency or an act of terrorism at home because the equipment is 
sitting in Iraq because we did not fund the war fight properly.
  It is time to put our soldiers first, not just in our rhetoric but in 
our budgets; and to do that, you need accountability.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. The final analysis of what we are saying is 
what the American people spoke to in November. They spoke to warning 
this Congress to stand up and demand accountability and be good 
stewards of their tax dollars, and that is the core of our Blue Dog 
resolution. I believe that and I hope that within the next couple of 
months we will have this resolution passed.
  Might I ask for the benefit of our audience if I could ask Mr. Ross 
if we could give the number of our House Resolution in the event that 
there might be some individuals who are in the C-SPAN audience who 
might want to give us a little helping hand here to help us get this 
bill passed.
  Mr. ROSS. H. Res. 97, providing for Operation Iraqi Freedom cost 
accountability, and it is quite simple. We want this administration to 
be accountable for your tax money, Mr. Speaker, that is being spent in 
Iraq, number one.
  Number two, we want a Truman-like commission to put an end to war 
profiteering in Iraq.
  And, finally, we want this administration to stop playing games and 
asking for emergency supplementals to hide the true cost of the war and 
ask for the money the way that all other funds are appropriated by this 
Congress, through the normal process.
  One hundred point four billion dollars was the cost for 2006. Over 
$400 billion has been spent since this war began. That is $8.4 billion 
a month. That is $275 million a day, and that is nearly $12 million an 
hour of your tax money, Mr. Speaker, and the tax money of every 
hardworking man and woman in this country; and it is time to restore 
commonsense, fiscal discipline and accountability to our government. 
That is one way, Mr. Speaker, that we believe we can honor our men and 
women in uniform.

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