[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5984]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  DEMOCRATS PROVIDING NEEDED OVERSIGHT OF BUSH ADMINISTRATION FAILURES

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, accountability has returned to Washington 
after a 6-year absence.
  This week alone, the new Democratic Congress has provided critical 
oversight of the administration's unacceptable neglect of our wounded 
soldiers. At a hearing earlier this week, some of my Republican 
colleagues said they have known about some of the treatment for several 
years, but they didn't realize it was this bad. And that is what 
oversight hearings are for. If you know there is a problem, you haul 
the Pentagon up to Capitol Hill to get answers.
  The old Republican Congress simply ignored these problems. That is 
not happening in the Democratic Congress. This week, we held four 
different oversight hearings so that we can find solutions quickly to 
ensure that what happened at Walter Reed never happens again.
  This Democratic House has also held its first hearing this week on 
the scandal at the U.S. Attorney's Office, where politics once again 
trumps competence in the Bush administration. Eight U.S. attorneys were 
fired so the Bush administration could pad the resumes of other 
attorneys.
  The days of incompetence without any accountability are over here in 
Washington. Real oversight has returned.

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