Political Quotes

“for a number of months I have been working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle--Senator Collins from Maine, Senator Stevens, Senator Warner--to try to get more oversight over the billions of dollars worth of contracts that have been and are being let to rebuild Iraq. I come to the floor today to offer an amendment with my colleague and friend, Senator Dorgan of North Dakota. We have discussed this amendment with Senator Levin and Senator Warner. What Senator Dorgan and I have found is a shocking system of so-called oversight with respect to the use of taxpayers' dollars. With the nation facing rising deficits and scarce federal dollars for our many problems here at home, it is imperative that there be strong oversight over the use of taxpayers' money. What our amendment deals with is literally the outsourcing of the oversight of the billions of dollars worth of contracts to rebuild Iraq. It sounds incredible, but the heart of the problem is, instead of having Federal employees oversee these billions of dollars worth of contracts to rebuild Iraq, the Department of Defense has outsourced the oversight of these huge contracts to private companies.”