Government Funding Transparency Act of 2008

Floor Speech

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Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues, this is the third of the three bills we had before us out of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee dealing with contracting issues. And I rise in strong support of this bill, H.R. 3928, the Government Funding Transparency Act. This bill requires contractors and other entities that are dependent on taxpayers funds for more than 80 percent of their annual gross revenue to disclose the names and salaries of their most highly compensated officials.

This requirement is similar to requirements that already apply to publicly traded companies under the rules of the Security and Exchange Commission and to nonprofit organizations through the Tax Code. It is based on a very simple principle. If you receive the vast amount of your revenue from the public, then the public has a right to know how that money is being spent.

The need for this bill became evident when the head of Blackwater, the private security military company, refused to tell Congress how much it earns, how much he earns. Blackwater gets almost all of its revenue from contracts with the Federal Government, yet Eric Prince, the head of the company, refused to answer Congressman Murphy when Mr. Murphy asked how much he earned.

As originally introduced by Representative Murphy last October, H.R. 3928 would have applied only to government contractors. Some felt that this approach unfairly singled out those entities, and we worked with the ranking member of the committee, Representative TOM DAVIS, to address this concern. And I believe that the result is a much stronger bill.

The measure before us today applies to any entity that receives government funding, whether through a contract, grant, cooperative agreement, subsidy or any other form of Federal funding. The measure will bring much needed sunshine to how tax dollars are spent, including on contracts. Under the bill, companies that are privately held that receive the vast majority of their revenues from taxpayers' dollars would be required to disclose the salaries of their top officers.

I want to congratulate and express my appreciation to Congressman Murphy for introducing this commonsense bill. American taxpayers have a right to know where their hard earned dollars are going.

I commend the sponsor and those who have worked on this bill on both sides of the aisle. And I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan piece of legislation.

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