David Obey: “The question is, why should this research proceed under conditions which enable the contractor to obtain sole source…”

“The question is, why should this research proceed under conditions which enable the contractor to obtain sole source noncompetitive contracts? Why should it proceed when there has been no peer review to determine whether or not this is the right way to proceed? Why should we proceed when a large number of universities and many people in the scientific community have expressed their concern that they will not be able to use the simulator because of the costs associated with this contract? It has been suggested, for instance, that a number of insurance companies have gone bankrupt because of other disasters. Why then should the insurance industry not do as FEMA wants it to do, namely to share in the cost of producing this research facility? Certainly if they will gain millions of dollars in saved claims from its research, they should be willing to help finance it. I would simply say in very frank terms what this is is a nice arrangement by one State which has working arrangements with several other universities, but the taxpayers' interests are not protected because of the way this research project is being designed.”