Weekly Washington Update

Statement

This week, the Washington Waste Watchers, a Congressional working group dedicated to rooting out wasteful government spending, were back in action exposing more examples of waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.

Congress will soon be engaged in debate over the federal budget and also will consider a major federal highway funding bill. Transportation is undoubtedly important to our economy. But before we sign a big check drawn on the account of American families, shouldn't we first examine the millions of dollars that are wasted each year by the Department of Transportation? Shouldn't we dedicate ourselves to putting every dime of those transportation dollars into roads and not into rip-offs?

Let me just give a few examples of how the Department of Transportation has squandered the hard earned money of American taxpayers.

Boston's "Big Dig" central artery, funded in large part with federal tax dollars, has been called, "the greatest public works scandal of modern times." In 2000, the project was already five times more expensive than planned and an investigation revealed that project managers were consistently dishonest in their reporting.

Another investigation revealed that 29 federal contracts worth roughly $62 million were paid without any knowledge of whether they were legally authorized.

Today, the federal government is picking up 80 percent of the cost for a $1.4 million project to upgrade three bus shelters in Ithaca, New York. The government is using more than $1 million of the American taxpayers money to equip bus shelters with "radiant heating systems" and a layout "designed to appeal to passengers' sense of security." American families are lucky if they can afford a house that costs $150,000 and the government is paying over $370,000 for a bus shelter?

While I remain dedicated to getting every transportation dollar Texas is entitled to, I also believe we can and must do more to eliminate the waste, fraud and abuse the permeates not only the Department of Transportation, but our entire federal government. Because, when it comes to federal programs, it's not how much money Washington spends that counts, it's how Washington spends your money.

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