Byron Dorgan: “I appreciate the Senator yielding to me. I was not here for all of the presentation by the Senator from Texas. However…”

“I appreciate the Senator yielding to me. I was not here for all of the presentation by the Senator from Texas. However, I heard enough to know that she just showed up in Congress a little late with respect to cutting franking. The Senator from Nevada has been cutting and cutting and cutting our franking, or mailing, budgets in recent years. The franking budgets in both the House and the Senate used to be far more substantial than they are now. We have cut our franking spending radically. Second, let me respond to the possibility of cuts to the General Accounting Office. I think it would not be a thoughtful exercise to suggest that we cut 25 percent more from the General Accounting Office, in addition to what we have already cut. The GAO is crucial to the ability of Congress to ferret out Government waste. Let me give you one example. Do you know that the Defense Department decided to buy some ant bait? That is right, ant bait to kill ants-- they wanted to buy 27,000 dollars' worth of ant bait. Do you know how long it took them to buy ant bait? It took 29 pages of procurement regulations and 270 days to buy 27,000 dollars' worth of ant bait. Who helps us discover that sort of absurdity, that kind of grotesque waste, that bizarre purchasing behavior? The GAO. The General Accounting Office is worth billions and billions of dollars in savings to American taxpayers.”