[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 22529]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      THE LACK OF TRANSPARENCY OF WHERE OUR TAX DOLLARS ARE GOING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Forbes) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FORBES. Mr. Speaker, across this country there are many people 
today who are worried, and they're concerned and are even fearful about 
a number of things, but two of those things consistently work their way 
to the top.
  The first one is the enormous amount of debt that this country is 
incurring and this administration is imposing upon our children and our 
grandchildren and, secondly, the lack of transparency of where our 
dollars are going.
  If you look at the millions of dollars that have gone to ACORN, no 
one in this administration can tell you where they went and account for 
them. We have got millions of dollars going to banks that no one can 
account for; billions of dollars in the stimulus package that no one 
can account for; billions of dollars in welfare benefits that no one 
can trace and account for. And we have czars popping up all over the 
place with no accountability.
  So we look at these people across the country who are fearful and 
concerned, and sometimes we say why are they assembling themselves 
together and why are they using some of the language that they are 
using? But what are their options?
  And let's look at just one agency, the Department of Defense. Many of 
us have been concerned that these huge expenditures are for the first 
time putting us in a position where our budget is driving our defense 
posture as opposed to our defense posture driving our budget.
  This year when the Defense budget came to the Armed Services 
Committee, the Secretary of Defense was required by this Congress, by 
law, to submit two things with that budget: First of all, a plan about 
the number of ships that we have, a shipbuilding plan, so that we could 
look at that plan and see how it matches up to threats that we have 
around the world. And the second thing was an aviation plan. It just 
makes sense that you have a plan and know how many planes you're 
building and where they're going to be so that we can see that we can 
defend this country. As the ranking member of the Readiness 
Subcommittee it is important, I felt, for us to know those risk 
factors.
  The law says specifically in 10 U.S. Code, section 231 that the 
Secretary has to submit a shipbuilding plan and then certify that this 
budget will meet it. The law also says he has to submit an aviation 
plan and certify that this budget will meet it. This year he simply 
refused to do it.
  And, Mr. Speaker, when we then said what are our options, we thought, 
first of all, let's just be polite. So we wrote a letter, I wrote it, 
as ranking member of the Readiness Subcommittee of the Armed Services 
Committee, asking him to submit those plans. Do you know what we got? 
This is what we got: absolutely nothing.
  So then we decided let's work in a bipartisan manner to see if we 
could correct that. So the Armed Services Committee issued a 
congressional inquiry demanding that the Secretary of Defense comply 
with the law and simply give us the plan for shipbuilding and aviation 
and certify that this budget would meet it. And, Mr. Speaker, this is 
exactly what we got: nothing.
  Every member of the Armed Services Committee unanimously agreed that 
that information should be submitted by September 15 and issued that in 
the congressional inquiry. And, to date, the Secretary of Defense has 
refused to turn over those dollars, those figures, that certification, 
and those plans.
  Mr. Speaker, I just ask you this: How can the Secretary of Defense 
look at our men and women in uniform and say we expect you to follow 
the law, to follow the statutes that Congress has passed and the 
President has signed, but they apply to you and not me?
  I don't know what options we have; but I know this, Mr. Speaker, that 
I'm going to continue to come on this floor day after day after day 
until the Secretary complies with the law and gives the Armed Services 
Committee what he's supposed to give us, a shipbuilding plan and an 
aviation plan and the certifications that our budget will meet those so 
that we are defending the United States of America.

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