Political Quotes

“it is time to rein in this administration's prevalent use of no-bid contracts. I urge all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this rule and the Accountability in Contracting Act. In the last five years, spending on "no-bid" or "sole-source" contracts has more than doubled. The administration contends that in every one of these cases there were "urgent and compelling needs" that required these contracts to be awarded without a competitive bidding process. In the case of the emergency response to disasters like hurricanes Katrina and Rita, I don't dispute that the need was urgent, but for non-emergency contracting needs, we must get our fiscal house in order. Just as any family has a budget to stick to, shouldn't we reach a point after an emergency when there has been enough time to consider multiple, competitive bids? A point after which the "compelling needs" are a little less urgent? By last June--nine months after Hurricane Katrina--$10.6 billion had been awarded to private contractors for recovery efforts, but only 30 percent of that had been awarded competitively. I know of no small business in Upstate New York, who could get by without reasonably budgeting for their expenses--even in times of emergency. Why should taxpayer dollars be spent differently? Oversight of these contracts has been no better. Audits have revealed that post-Katrina contractors have over-billed, double-billed, and billed for work that was never completed.”