Congressman Duncan's Statement on the Accountability in Contracting Act

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MARCH 15, 2007

 

WASHINGTON D.C. - Congressman John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-Tenn.) gave the following statement today during consideration of H.R. 1362, Accountability in Contracting Act of 2007:

 

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bill, and I thank all who have worked to bring this legislation to the floor today.

 

I wish the bill went much further, but there are so many former federal employees working for federal contractors now, and so many present federal employees who want to some day hitch on to this lucrative federal gravy train, that the pressures against reform are tremendous.

 

Unfortunately, almost every federal contract is a sweetheart or insider or friendship type deal.  Almost all federal contracts have at least one or usually several former federal employees working for them.

 

Defense contractors are the prime examples. The International Herald Tribune had an article a year and a half ago describing what it called the revolving door at the Pentagon.

 

It said the top 20 defense contractors had hired over 300 retired admirals and generals during the 90s.

 

But this type of thing is rampant throughout the federal government. 

 

Now I am not against the federal government contracting out many functions.

 

Usually, or often, the federal bureaucracy is so wasteful and inefficient that federal contractors can do things better or cheaper, even while making huge profits.

 

But some of the markups on contracts in Iraq have been mind boggling.  I believe fiscal conservatives should be the ones most upset about some of the rip-off deals in Iraq.

 

Be that as it may, this bill helps highlight what has become a serious abuse of power, and abuse of the taxpayer, and this is a good start toward correcting this problem.