Byron Dorgan: “I have spent the last nearly 2 hours prior to coming to the floor chairing a hearing of the Democratic Policy Committee…”

“I have spent the last nearly 2 hours prior to coming to the floor chairing a hearing of the Democratic Policy Committee on waste, fraud, and abuse, dealing with the Halliburton Corporation with respect to contracting in Iraq. I don't--along with my colleagues who joined me--take pleasure at holding hearings to expose waste and abuse and, I think, fraud. We do it because the authorizing committees in this Congress have decided they are not interested in having these kinds of hearings. Let me just give you some idea of what we have learned at the five hearings that I have held on this subject. Today, at the hearing, an employee of Halliburton who was providing food service in a portion of Iraq to our troops, said something to me that was almost unbelievable. He said they were routinely serving food to American troops that had outdated stamps on it. When you go to the grocery store, you see that food is going to be good through a certain date. They were getting that kind of food that was out of date and serving it to American soldiers. I understand greed because we see enough of it in some of these circumstances at these hearings. I don't understand the shameful behavior of somebody who is charging this Government for feeding our troops, and then would feed our troops food that is date stamped out of date. The Halliburton Corporation, by the way, said that it was feeding 42,000 troops a day in one contract, and it turns out that only 14,000 were eating.…”