[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5717]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            THE CAMEL STATUE

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the United States State Department is 
on an art spending spree.
  First, it spent $1 million for a granite statue at the London 
Embassy. It is modern art. It looks like a stack of bricks.
  Now it has spent $400,000 for a statue of a camel that will be sent 
to the Embassy in Pakistan. Is this really necessary? I mean, a camel?
  This is an example of spending somebody else's money. This ought to 
be embarrassing to the State Department.
  Mr. Speaker, there is more.
  This is the same State Department that the inspector general has 
recently said has lost or misplaced $6 billion. The State Department 
cannot account for this money. Where, oh, where has the taxpayer money 
gone? If any business lost $6 billion its shareholders would be mad and 
want answers. But the government gives no answers, and what money it 
has it wastes on camel statues.
  Congress should pass my bipartisan bill with Mr. Connolly, the 
Foreign Aid Accountability Act, and make the State Department account 
for the money it spends, otherwise more lost money, more camel statues, 
more art spending sprees.
  And that's just the way it is.

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