Statement Of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT),
Ranking Member,  Subcommittee On State And Foreign Operations,
Senate Appropriations Committee

Senate GOP Ducks And Covers Up
In Refusing To Give Continued Support
To The Inspector General For Iraq Reconstruction
Congressional Record
Wednesday, May 3, 2006

Mr. President, I am a cosponsor of Amendment 3662 by my friend from Wisconsin, Senator Feingold.  His amendment, which would have ensured continued support for the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, was ruled “non germane” by the Parliamentarian.

This is inexplicable and unfortunate.  But the real travesty is that the Majority, who could simply agree to accept this amendment, would prefer to hide behind the Parliamentarian’s ruling and let it die. 

By all accounts, with the exception of the snipes of some anonymous Pentagon officials and their friends in the Majority party who do not want the colossal blunders of the Iraq reconstruction program exposed to the light of day, the Special Inspector General has done an excellent job under difficult and dangerous conditions.  

He has uncovered numerous instances of waste and fraud – some, shocking in their audacity -- and there are dozens of investigations and prosecutions under way.

There is another $1.6 billion for Iraq reconstruction in this Supplemental for precisely the same types of activities that have been funded under the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund. 

But in this bill they are funded under traditional Foreign Operations accounts, not under the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund.

What this means is that, by not adopting the Feingold amendment, the Special Inspector General will not have oversight of these funds.

Apparently the idea is for the State Department Inspector General to take over this responsibility.  But that office has no people in Iraq, no plan or budget to put people there, and no ability to do the job any time soon.  They have said so themselves.

This is nothing more than a transparent attempt to shut down the only effective oversight of this massive reconstruction program which has been plagued by mismanagement and fraud. 

Projects have been poorly designed, grossly over priced, and many will never be finished, while U.S. contractors like Halliburton have made off with huge profits.

We are told by our friends in the Majority, acting on behalf of some in the Pentagon and the White House who want to shut down the Office of the Special Inspector General, that they just want to return to the “regular order.”  That is their explanation for turning this responsibility over to the State Department.

That is laughable.  There is nothing that resembles the regular order in this multi-billion dollar supplemental, none of which is paid for.   In one breath they argue that they cannot pay for the war through the regular appropriations process because it is an extraordinary expense.  In the next breath they make the opposite argument to justify shutting down the office of the Special Inspector General.

If this were really about the regular order, the White House would support the amendment by Senator Byrd to pay the cost of this war, rather than continue to ignore the regular budget process and fund the war off budget, leaving it to future generations to pay.

This is just another example of the hypocrisy of the President’s bankrupt fiscal policy, and of those who continue to defend it in Congress.  Use a fig leaf to make it appear as if you support the regular budget process, when in fact you are weakening it.  This also is the latest example of the Majority party’s distaste and even disdain for oversight and for the checks and balances in our system that are supposed to root out corruption, waste, fraud and abuse and to make government work better as government spends the taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars.

Mr. President, the Special Inspector General has a difficult job.  His job is to find the truth, and sometimes the truth is hard for government agencies to accept.  Sometimes they would rather not have the spotlight shined on their mistakes.

But the Special Inspector General works for American taxpayers, not for the Pentagon, and not for Halliburton. 

The Feingold amendment would have ensured continued oversight of the very programs the Special Inspector General was created to oversee.  I want to commend him for his attention to this issue and his effort to protect American taxpayers.  By using a technical slight-of-hand maneuver to prevent the Senate from voting on this amendment – a vote they know they would lose -- the Majority has dealt a blow to oversight of the shoddy, wasteful and criminal failures of the Iraq reconstruction program.    

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