Byron Dorgan: “I intend to offer two amendments to this legislation. I take a moment now to offer the first of those amendments. While…”

“I intend to offer two amendments to this legislation. I take a moment now to offer the first of those amendments. While I do that, I thank my colleague from Missouri and my colleague from the State of Washington for their work on this piece of legislation. This is an appropriations subcommittee bill on which they have done an excellent job. I appreciate that. I will offer an amendment at the completion of my comments. The amendment deals with the issue of contracting, particularly contracting in Iraq, and also now contracting in this country for reconstruction of the Gulf States that were hit so hard by Hurricane Katrina and then Rita. I will talk about the reason I am offering this and point out I have offered it previously, and I lost in the vote that was conducted in the Senate. However, I have previously indicated I do not intend to be discouraged by losing a vote. I will ask the Congress to reconsider by having another vote, and I will do it again following this if I am not successful. Let me describe the circumstances that bring me to the conclusion we need a special committee of the type that Harry S. Truman led when he was a Senator. Incidentally, he was a Democrat Senator who had the Senate establish what was called the Truman Committee to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse in defense spending back in the middle of what became World War II, the middle of the Second World War.…”