Political Quotes

“tonight the United States Senate accepted an amendment that I wrote with the distinguished senior Senator from West Virginia, Mr. Byrd, to require accountability and independent oversight on the ``contracts for reconstruction and other services in Iraq that are funded in whole or in part with funds that are made available by the Department of Defense.'' This requirement is long overdue. Too much money is moving right now out of public coffers into private hands without adequate assurance that those hands have won the contracts fairly. Suffice it to say, the sums of money involved are staggering. The latest issue of Newsweek magazine says: $1 billion a week, and that's the lowside. So much for ``self-sustaining'' reconstruction. The head of Iraq's State oil marketing organization thinks ``the United States is dreaming if it believes it will be able to finance the reconstruction with oil money alone.'' I was particularly troubled several weeks ago because, in the New York Times magazine, there was a feature length article describing the letting of a multibillion-dollar oil field contract to Kellogg, Brown and Root. That contract was sole source, meaning that Kellogg, Brown won it without having to compete at all. But now it appears that Kellogg, Brown and Root actually developed the Army's plan for the oil field restoration effort, and then was awarded the contract to carry out the plan, almost automatically. I think it is important to be clear.…”