On the recordApril 7, 2014
The United States State Department is on an art spending spree. First, it spent $1 million for a granite statue at the London Embassy. It is modern art. It looks like a stack of bricks. Now it has spent $400,000 for a statue of a camel that will be sent to the Embassy in Pakistan. Is this really necessary? I mean, a camel? This is an example of spending somebody else's money. This ought to be embarrassing to the State Department. Mr. Speaker, there is more. This is the same State Department that the inspector general has recently said has lost or misplaced $6 billion. The State Department cannot account for this money. Where, oh, where has the taxpayer money gone? If any business lost $6 billion its shareholders would be mad and want answers. But the government gives no answers, and what money it has it wastes on camel statues. Congress should pass my bipartisan bill with Mr. Connolly, the Foreign Aid Accountability Act, and make the State Department account for the money it spends, otherwise more lost money, more camel statues, more art spending sprees. And that's just the way it is. ____________________
