Henry Waxman: “This supplemental includes a request by the Bush administration for an additional $2.1 billion in oil reconstruction…”

“This supplemental includes a request by the Bush administration for an additional $2.1 billion in oil reconstruction funds for Iraq. This request nearly triples the administration's previous estimate for Iraqi oil reconstruction costs. On September 12, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell) and I wrote to the Office of Management and Budget asking for basic details about this request and for an explanation of the enormous increase. We received no response. More than a month now has passed and the administration has provided absolutely no information to explain this vast increase. I contacted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the agency in charge of oil reconstruction, to ask how this request for $2.1 billion was developed. They told me they could not provide any information because they were not involved in preparing this request; it was done by the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. So I contacted the CPA to ask for some basic details about how much the taxpayer has been paying Halliburton for work under the oil reconstruction contract. They said they did not know and told me to talk to the Army Corps, which had already told me they were not involved with the administration's request. In this morning's New York Times, OMB officials said they do not know about this either.”