On the recordJuly 18, 2012
I'm here to offer an amendment to strike $120.5 million in undistributed funds from the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Fund, matching the Senate authorizers and keeping intact over $1.7 billion for this program. The Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Fund--more commonly known as JIEDDO--is responsible for leading, advocating and coordinating the Defense Department's efforts to defeat IEDs. After more than $20 billion, Congress has received numerous reports that JIEDDO has had decidedly mixed outcomes, and after three attempts still has not developed a mechanism for tracking the Pentagon's counter-IED efforts. So we've spent $20 billion. In the Senate, the Armed Services Committee cut $200 million from JIEDDO. In their report, they said JIEDDO suffered from: Duplication of effort with the military services, excessive contractor support costs, and organizational inefficiencies. As The Washington Post recently reported, these excessive contractor support costs included noncompetitive contracts given to former government employees profiting from Washington's perpetual revolving door and hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts being subcontracted out to other former military personnel. Isn't this what our constituents dislike the most about what's going on here, that there are cronyism activities, that there are revolving doors and that military personnel, after they're retired, become mentors?…
