Rick Allen: “I very much respect the Senator from Oklahoma. He is a man who is a watchdog on the taxpayers' money, and so am I. I…”

“I very much respect the Senator from Oklahoma. He is a man who is a watchdog on the taxpayers' money, and so am I. I know he is very conversant on a variety of issues. It is one of those occasions I must rise in opposition to the Senator's amendment. Congress, several years ago, authorized the Defense Travel System with the aim of saving taxpayers' dollars, and that makes a great deal of sense to make sure that travel administration by the Department of Defense has greater scrutiny. In fact, as I understand it, they have found by doing it this way--and it is only being field tested; it is not fully implemented--those who are traveling at first-class and tickets being paid for where travel wasn't used. This system is actually helping save the taxpayers money and also identifying when Government workers are flying at a higher cost than they ought to. I am told that it is now used at a little bit more than half of the Department of Defense 11,000 sites by nearly 700,000 uniformed and civilian personnel. It appears, from what I have looked at, that DTS has not only met but exceeded its original objectives. It is not fully put in place. It is being field tested. As a practical matter, we would like another year or so to see it fully implemented. I am told that it has handled more than a million transactions, and it is well on its way to saving the projected $56 million a year for the American taxpayers.…”