Byron Dorgan: “I am going to offer one other amendment on the Foreign Operations appropriations bill. I will offer it on every…”

“I am going to offer one other amendment on the Foreign Operations appropriations bill. I will offer it on every appropriations bill I get the chance to offer it on. It is legislating on appropriations, but it is important to do. We have held hearing after hearing on the subject of Halliburton and other contractors in Iraq. There is massive waste of the taxpayers' money. The most recent hearing talked about a whistleblower who worked for Halliburton in a food service enterprise in a supervisory capacity in Iraq. He said: We were serving food to American troops that had expired and outdated stamps on it by as much as a year. We were told to feed it to the troops. There was food in convoys that came under fire, and the food was contaminated with bullets and shrapnel. We were told to take out the bullets and shrapnel, and feed the food to the troops anyway. He also said--with respect to when he worked for Halliburton we were told if we spoke to a government auditor who came to our base, we would be fired or sent to an area to work where there is an active fire zone. And this in fact happened to him. This isn't just this hearing. It is not just feeding outdated food to the troops. It is about people who have testified, whistleblowers who have testified at previous hearings and said: We drove $85,000 new trucks, and we left them on the side of the road. If they had a flat tire or a plugged fuel pump, they got torched. We would just leave them behind.…”