Political Quotes

“the ranking member, together with our leadership, had hoped to have a vote. That will not occur at this time. We are contemplating having that vote, which would be on the Dorgan amendment, at 3:45 today. At this time, I cannot speak to the finality of that. The leadership is considering that issue. In the meantime, I will address the Dorgan amendment. The committee has been active in exercising oversight on the Department of Defense contracting, particularly in Iraq, and held a hearing earlier this year focused specifically on recent findings of the Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction. In addition, the committee held several acquisition reform and general contract oversight hearings this year. I was particularly taken by some of the remarks of the distinguished Senator from North Dakota, Mr. Dorgan. We do not take lightly the message that he spoke to today. The Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction was established by Congress in October 2004 to provide oversight of the Iraqi relief and reconstruction fund and all obligations, expenditures, and revenues associated with reconstruction and rehabilitation activities in Iraq. The SIGIR oversight is accomplished via independent audit, field inspections, and criminal investigations into potential fraud, waste, and abuse funds. The SIGIR submits quarterly and semiannual reports to Congress, the latest of which contains 29 audits of specific projects and activities.…”