Barbara Boxer: “When we look at this congressional notification, which was very late in getting there because there were already five…”

“When we look at this congressional notification, which was very late in getting there because there were already five task orders under this Halliburton contract, finally they gave this information over: They have obligated first $17 million, then $6.7 million, $22 million, $5 million, and $24 million, with no competitive bidding. Originally it was, oh, they have to put out the oil fires. Okay. We understand that. But what about the rest? The estimated face value of this contract is $7 billion. What do we spend on all of our afterschool programs, I say to my colleagues, in 1 year? A billion dollars. How many kids are waiting in line to get into that program? Millions. We cannot afford it, but we can afford to give a sole-source $7 billion to one company named Halliburton. We all know the power of that company. I want my colleagues to see I am not making this up when I say this was a sole-source contract. Estimated face value, $7 billion. Bids solicited, sole-source procurement; bids received, one. What a happy day for Halliburton that was. The subsidiary of Halliburton is Brown & Root. That is the corporation that is the subsidiary of Halliburton that received this contract. One might say, well, maybe this is such a great company, maybe there is a reason why we would go sole source with this company. Well, GAO has found serious problems with contract work that Brown & Root did for the Army in the Balkans.”