Statement of Congressman John D. Dingell
Ranking Democrat, House Committee on Commerce
on the GAO Report on Federal Spending on the Salt Lake City Olympics

December 21, 1999

When a city is awarded the right to host an Olympic Games, it becomes a source of great and understandable civic pride. The Olympic Games, the General Accounting Office report shows, are also the impetus for massive amounts of federal largesse.

When a city such as Salt Lake wins the Games, it is effectively obligating the federal taxpayer to underwrite a wide range of activities, from infrastructure and transportation projects to security. But until this point, there has been no central accounting for federal spending on the Olympics, and there has been no conscious decision by the taxpayers or their representatives to spend the money on the games. That needs to change, especially when the taxpayer’s tab for the Salt Lake games may approach almost $2 billion, according to the GAO. This is an amount far in excess of previous estimates.

These funds are spent whether the games have been won by legitimate efforts or the questionable practices of payoffs and special favors that have already been amply documented. Some of these federal expenditures may well be necessary, but there may also be a fair amount of goldplating. That can only be determined with further scrutiny, and I have asked that the GAO continue to monitor this spending closely.

In a Congressional hearing last week, the President of the International Olympic Committee pledged a series of reforms. Unfortunately, the most important IOC reform -- the establishment of an independent ethics commission -- is an incomplete work in progress lacking in specifics. Until ethics rules and procedures are in place, I cannot say that the IOC is reformed. I intend to send a letter to the IOC shortly seeking that information.