Roy Blunt: “as we look for alternatives today, I want to commend the gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Ehlers, and the gentleman from…”

“as we look for alternatives today, I want to commend the gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Ehlers, and the gentleman from California, Mr. Duncan Hunter. My freshmen colleague the gentleman from Kansas, Mr. Jerry Moran, a couple of months ago began to mention this concept to me as a concept that he thought would work. We are looking to new and better ways to do things. Clearly Members are not going to privatize or turn back to the States the obligation to defend the country, so we have to look for different ways to solve problems, management problems in the Defense Department. We are talking about an agency that spends 20 percent of its money just to administer its programs, and according to their own inspector general's report, as of March 31, 1996, 63 percent of the project costs were not reconcilable to the accounting records, 79 percent had inadequate documentation, 53 percent failed to engage independent auditors, even though their grant requirement absolutely required that. We are not debating today whether or not to spend money on the arts. The key here is not about spending money on the arts. We are for the first time really significantly debating where is the better place to make this decision. Should this decision be made in Washington, or can this decision be made better in the States? We got an opportunity to look to the States. The State art councils have done a good job distributing the State money.”