Tom Harkin: “I thank the chairman. Any time the chairman needs to interrupt my remarks to seek that agreement, I will be more than…”

“I thank the chairman. Any time the chairman needs to interrupt my remarks to seek that agreement, I will be more than happy to yield the floor. I wish to talk about an amendment I have not offered yet but I hope will be accepted by both sides. I will offer it, and I hope it will be acceptable. It has to do with the loss of some $8 billion for which we cannot account. More than 3 years into the Iraq war, we have had report after report documenting rampant corruption and profiteering on the part of some defense contractors, as well as lax oversight by governmental officials. A major reason this is continuing largely unchecked is that apparently the Department of Justice has been delaying whistleblower lawsuits brought under the False Claims Act, and DOJ is not pursuing these suits aggressively. So I filed an amendment designed to break this logjam by requiring the Department of Justice to report on a semiannual basis, every 6 months----”