Byron Dorgan: “A man whose name was Henry Bunting came to a hearing I held. I believe Senator Durbin was at that hearing. Henry Bunting…”

“A man whose name was Henry Bunting came to a hearing I held. I believe Senator Durbin was at that hearing. Henry Bunting worked for Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton in Kuwait. In Kuwait, he was the purchaser of supplies for the U.S. Army. They wanted some hand towels, needed some towels, so a purchase requisition goes to Henry. Henry is going to buy some towels. Except when he put in the order for the towels, his company said, no, no, no, you cannot buy those regular towels that way. Towels have to have our logo embroidered on them. So this is what he had to buy, at more than double the cost of the regular towels, so that the company logo could be put on the towels, and the taxpayers could be charged twice as much. I am sure the soldiers didn't care one way or another whether there was that embroidered logo on the towel. But Henry, the purchaser, was told: You buy these. And don't ask any questions. Henry says, You know, the American taxpayer got charged double and he didn't like it and he want to speak publicly. And not just this, it was a thousand other examples of costs being run up, from $45 for a case of Coca-cola, to $7,500 a month to lease an SUV. Henry said, It is not just the towels, but he brought the towels along to show us what is going on is really wrong. The American people are taking a bath here and it undermines the soldiers, as well. Thank God there are some whistleblowers who are willing to come forward.…”