Barbara Mikulski: “Let's talk about taxpayers, since this is supposed to inherently do something or other, saving money to fight terrorism.…”

“Let's talk about taxpayers, since this is supposed to inherently do something or other, saving money to fight terrorism. This started in 2000, as Senator Sarbanes said. The Army spent $7 million to defeat their own Federal employees. They spent $7 million in 6 years. Boy, how about that? These are the little people, the landscapers. Thank God they had the AFGE behind them. Then, after spending $7 million and changing the rules--and with the last set of specs, they had 1,500 amendments; imagine if we had 1,500 amendments--what we now find is they are going to have to spend another $5 million to implement the savings. So they are going to spend $12 million when the original goal was to save $7 million. Come on. If we are fighting terrorism and saving money, let's leave Walter Reed alone. It is going to be closed in a couple years because of BRAC. Let the landscapers do their job. Let the doctors and nurses do their job. Let's do our job and pass the Mikulski-Sarbanes amendment.”