Byron Dorgan: “my colleague, Senator Landrieu from Louisiana, will be on the floor shortly. We want to talk about something that has…”

“my colleague, Senator Landrieu from Louisiana, will be on the floor shortly. We want to talk about something that has occurred in the last week. A week ago today, I chaired a hearing of the Policy Committee. The hearing was on the subject of the reconstruction in the Gulf States in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We have held many previous hearings on reconstruction in Iraq. As you know, this Congress has literally spent tens of billions of dollars on reconstruction projects in Iraq, and the waste, fraud, and abuse there is mind-boggling. There is massive money going out the door to contractors, in many cases with large no-bid contracts, and the taxpayers are getting bilked. I will not go into the lengthy stories about it now. We decided to hold a hearing with respect to contracting in the gulf because this Congress has already approved $60 billion for reconstruction, and we have heard tales and stories that are similar to those we hear with respect to reconstruction in Iraq. At last Monday's hearing, we heard from a local New Orleans company. The owner of the company and his job foreman originally were hired to provide 75 qualified electricians to work on a project they had begun at the Belle Chase Naval Air Station in Louisiana. The project they were hired for was with Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton. This company was hired to provide 75 qualified electricians.…”