Are we or are we not? Is the State Department fully committed to transparency, full transparency and accountability, to the taxpayers of the United States?

We shouldn't spend a dime, frankly, without some rigorous metrics and milestones that are efficacious, that are meaningful.

I don't leave this hearing with any confidence that the program in front of us with $1 billion being planned in expenditures over the next several years has the slightest chance of being effective.

taxpayer money is on the line here.

Today this House will vote on the momentous issue of amending the Constitution of the United States. All of us should understand that this is no symbolic vote. This is not a routine legislative act. We are asked to consider amending the…

Had this amendment been in place during the income contraction we just experienced, we would have abandoned the economic field to the Darwinian forces at work and guaranteed that the Great Recession became the second Great Depression…

Amendment to H.R. 2918 offered by the Honorable Gerald E. Connolly

Amendment to H.R. 2992 offered by the Honorable Gerald E. Connolly

Congressman Connolly's comments resonate so much with us in terms of protecting and strengthening the Federal acquisition work force.

None of use want to grow bureaucracy.

I introduced H.R. 1424, the Federal Acquisition Improvement Act, and Senator Collins introduced a companion bill in the Senate, bipartisan legislation.

The bill sends a very strong signal of improving and strengthening the Federal Acquisition Institute.

I appreciate your attention to the issue which is of critical importance to Federal employees, contractors and taxpayers.

We cannot protect the Federal acquisition process without a good Federal acquisition work force.

It is imperative that we maintain competitive compensation packages in the Federal work force.

The acquisition work force is experiencing a silver tsunami, in which 25 percent of employees could retire within the next several years.

This past Friday was Veterans Day, the day we set aside to honor and remember the service of our Nation's veterans. I know that most of my colleagues attended veterans events throughout their districts. I was proud to be at the American…

Failure is not an option. Let none of us forget that we work for the American people, and they expect us to do our job. World markets are watching, balance is demanded; $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction is the minimal target we must meet…

I am very concerned, very concerned that the progress we have made over the past 2 years is at risk.

the higher level of technical expertise, now you are competing with the private sector trying to get those people.

Given the ostensible inadequacies identified by the IG, why wouldn't we have a little bit less confidence...

Not a single prosecution has occurred. Not one.

This topic, while maybe not universally sexy, the taxpayers' interest is lost or won, frankly, at this level of management.

When he was sent into space, he was in a capsule on top of a rocket with hundreds of thousands of pounds of thrust, comforted in the knowledge that both had been won by the lowest Federal bidder.

I appreciate the committee's attention to this critical issue, and Ranking Member Connolly's proposed legislation that would support smart investments in the acquisition work force.