Reps. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mike Ross (D-AR), William D. Delahunt (D-MA), and John Larson (D-CT) spoke out at the event Thursday morning - each leading a stinging indictment of the billions of taxpayer dollars wasted by the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security. 

"It's been one year since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast and American taxpayers are still spending more than $250,000 per month to store 9,778 brand new, fully-furnished manufactured homes, which have gone unused due to incompetence at the highest levels of our government," Rep. Mike Ross (AR-04) said. "If this is not a prime example of a drain in the U.S. tax dollars, then I don't know what is."

"The Mismanagement of taxpayer dollars by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense has been outrageous," said Rep. Dennis Cardoza (CA-18).  "This award was created because it is essential to bring attention to these egregious instances of waste, fraud and abuse.  Otherwise, it will never stop." 

"FEMA's slogan appears to be, if at first you don't succeed, then we'll mess it up again," said Rep. Wasserman Schultz (FL-20).  "After seeing FEMA's response to Katrina, led by Michael Chertoff and the inept Michael Brown, my constituents have absolutely no confidence that FEMA would be able to assist them were a strong hurricane to strike South Florida."

"On Secretary Rumsfeld's watch, the Defense Department has become Exhibit A when it comes to fiscal mismanagement," said Rep. Van Hollen (MD-8).  "It cannot pass a simple audit and has failed to protect the taxpayer from waste and abuse."

 The Truth Squad was formed to expose the excessive waste, fraud and abuse under the watch of the Republican controlled Congress and the Bush Administration.

Secretary Rumsfeld has presided over a Department of Defense that has awarded numerous bad contacts, fails to pay soldiers on time and correctly - while continuing to pay former soldiers who have been declared deserters - creating numerous economic hardships for our men and women in uniform, and fails year after year to pass a clean audit. 

Secretary Chertoff presides over a Department of Homeland Security including FEMA that completely failed in responding to residents of Florida and the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma last year.  Homeland Security has awarded billions in bad contracts, left over 9,000 trailers sitting in the Hope, Arkansas Airport unused that cost taxpayers millions, and provided hundreds of fraudulent payments in disaster relief and debit card purchases. 

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