CHIP

Floor Speech

CHIP

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, it is without question that we are on a wrong course in Iraq. The Bush administration's failure to listen to the American people, failure to plan for the unexpected, and failure to learn from its mistakes has left our Nation less, not more, secure from terror and from the dangers our troops face in Iraq.

The expenditure of hundreds of billions of American tax dollars has not only strained our Treasury, but cost us uncountable opportunities to improve the lives of American families and to strengthen our country's future.

Every month, we are borrowing and spending over $10 billion to fund the war in Iraq--billions of dollars that we borrow and spend that could help deliver health coverage to children who need it; that could help improve the quality of elementary education and make college more affordable--things that are an essential investment in our Nation's economic strength into the future.

In addition to the billions we are spending to continue our military involvement in Iraq--a policy that must change, and soon--we are also spending billions more on reconstruction efforts. In this area alone, between 2003 and 2006, we have spent more than $300 billion. The same President who thinks it is too much to spend $35 billion on American children's health care over the next 5 years had no problem pouring $300 billion into Iraq reconstruction, and I submit that there is very little to show for it.

We have fought long and hard to keep pressure on President Bush to take a new direction in Iraq. At every turn, he and his allies in Congress have resisted. We will continue our fight, but as we do, we also have an obligation on behalf of the American people to ensure that these tax dollars are being used as they should be.

As fighting the war and rebuilding Iraq have been privatized, too often we have seen evidence of fraud. According to a 2005 report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, nearly $9 billion in funding intended for reconstruction efforts went unaccounted for--just gone. Investigations by the Special IG for Iraq Reconstruction of $32 billion in funding for Iraq reconstruction have already led to $9.5 million in recovered and seized assets and more than $3.6 million in restitution.

Iraq is a target-rich environment for corruption, and monitoring the expenditure of U.S. resources there requires vigilance. We must ensure that our tax dollars are not squandered to corruption or other malfeasance, and we must ensure that we have the ability to audit U.S. tax dollars from the time our officials award contracts through their final expenditure. We must do all we can to prevent ``leakage'' of this reconstruction aid through every step in the contractor supply chain.

We must give ourselves the chance to consider what effect all this graft and corruption may be having on the motivations of Iraqi leaders. When I visited in Iraq, we heard of just one official from Al Anbar Province--a police official--who had embezzled more than $50 million. With graft at that scale, one can only imagine how the motivations of Iraqi leaders might be warped.

The measure before us today will help us find out. It will establish a new ``Truman Commission'' to restore the American people's faith that their tax dollars are being accounted for. The Truman Commission was formed during World War II, when then-Senator Harry S Truman created a special committee to investigate the National Defense Program to investigate defense-related contracts and expose corruption and mismanagement in the use of war-related funds.

The commission we seek today will have the authority to audit U.S. funds used for U.S. projects or for U.S. efforts to support rehabilitation of Iraqi industries. The establishment of this commission will ensure that this cascade of billions of dollars for reconstruction in Iraq can be tracked, so that the hard-earned money U.S. taxpayers provide will serve the purposes--the legitimate purposes--of the American and the Iraqi people.

I applaud Senator Webb and our Presiding Officer, Senator McCaskill, for their leadership in sponsoring this amendment. I am very pleased that my colleagues in the Democratic freshman class, every one of us has thrown our support behind it.

Last November, the American people told us it was time for a change in Iraq, and we are working hard for a new direction. But as we fight to bring our troops home, this amendment will help make certain that our tax dollars are spent as we mean for them to be. It is wise legislation, it is needed legislation, and I urge its support.

Madam President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source