Truth Squad Tackles Wasteful Katrina Spending

This week, House Democrats launched the Waste, Fraud and Abuse Truth Squad. Congressman Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) and I will serve as co-chairs for the Truth Squad and we will be joined by Congressman David Obey (D-WI), Congressman John Tanner (D-TN), Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), and Congressman John Tierney (D-MA).

The Truth Squad will conduct oversight of the Bush Administration’s handling of taxpayer dollars. Under the Bush Administration’s watch, billions of taxpayer’s dollars have been squandered, contributing to the largest annual deficits in our nation’s history. Despite documented instances of waste, fraud and abuse, the Republican Congress has failed to provide meaningful oversight or hold the Administration accountable.

To kick start the Truth Squad, we have released a new report on wasteful procurement spending in response to Hurricane Katrina. In the year following Hurricane Katrina, citizens of the Gulf Coast needed government to be at its best. Instead, they got the cronyism, corruption, and incompetence that has been far too commonplace under the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress.

The Republican leaders in Congress and the White House have abdicated their responsibility to manage our nation’s finances. Congress cannot continue to buck its constitutional duty of checks-and-balances. Future generations will have to pay for the money the federal government is borrowing from other countries to spend in Washington.