Byron Dorgan: “I have an amendment to offer, an amendment I have shared with both sides. It is, in fact, an amendment that we have…”

“I have an amendment to offer, an amendment I have shared with both sides. It is, in fact, an amendment that we have previously debated. It deals with the subject of contracting abuses, especially contracting abuses in the reconstruction in Iraq-- the money that is paid by American taxpayers, through our Government, to major contractors that are given no-bid contracts, spending billions of dollars, and the stories about contracting abuse are horrifying. Yet nothing seems to happen. I have described previously something that happened in the 1940s. Harry Truman was in the Senate. Harry Truman was a Democrat. A member of his party was in the White House, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He couldn't have been very happy about Harry Truman because Truman came to the floor of Senate and said: I have substantial evidence of wrongdoing, of contracting, of military waste with respect to defense contracts and defense spending. I think it needs to be investigated. They began holding a series of hearings. He finally was able to get a committee together called the Truman Committee. They began a series of hearings. It lasted a number of years. At a time when a member of his own political party was President, it was probably embarrassing for everybody that Harry Truman was leading the charge while FDR was in the White House. But they uncovered a substantial amount of abuse and waste and fraud. Good for them.…”