Political Quotes

“I yield back the balance of my time. Amendment No. 96 Offered by Mr. DeFazio Mr. DeFAZIO. I have an amendment at the desk. The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment. The text of the amendment is as follows: At the end of the bill (before the short title) insert the following: Sec. __. None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to enforce section 376 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 (Public Law 109-163). The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from Oregon is recognized for 5 minutes. Mr. DeFAZIO. My colleagues, in 1990 Congress passed a law that required that all Federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, must have auditable financial statements every year. Since that time, the Department of Defense has spent $10 trillion--$10,000 billion--and yet no audit has been conducted. In fact, there are numerous problems with accounting at DOD, and their financial management has been rated as ``high risk'' by the Government Accountability Office. Unfortunately, the Pentagon, being incapable of being audited, sought an exemption from audits. So in 2005, Congress passed a ban on completing an audit. It was contained in section 376 of the 2006 National Defense Authorization Act. In 2009, Congress got tough and they said, ``Look, we've exempted you from audits. But let's have a goal--not a mandate--a goal of you doing an audit by 2017.…”