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Senator Klobuchar and Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Curb Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in Wartime Contracting

Legislation would establish an independent, bipartisan commission to increase transparency and accountability

July 18, 2007

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, acting on her promise to bring accountability to Washington, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) joined eight Democratic freshman Senators to introduce legislation to establish an independent, bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting to investigate U.S. wartime contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

“This proposal is long overdue,” said Klobuchar. “Again and again we have seen contractors wastefully spend hard-working American taxpayer dollars while this Administration sat idly by – enough is enough.  When I was a county attorney, we always said, ‘follow the money and you’ll find the bad guys.’  This Commission will follow the money and it will make sure people are held accountable for waste, fraud, and abuse.”

The Commission will study and investigate the impact of the government’s growing reliance on civilian contractors to perform wartime functions.  It will assess the extent of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement of wartime contracts, and the extent to which those responsible have been held accountable.

The Commission will significantly increase transparency and accountability, as well as generate important solutions for longstanding, systematic contracting problems.  This legislation would expand the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction’s responsibilities beyond Iraq reconstruction to all wartime contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Commission will work in consultation with a newly-expanded Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) that will be authorized to audit defense wartime contracts for logistics support, as well as other federal agency contracts for security and intelligence functions in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.  This collaborative effort will result in specific findings and recommendations to improve inter-agency wartime contracting.

The Commission on Wartime Contracting was inspired by the work of the “Truman Committee,” which conducted hundreds of hearings and investigations into government waste, saving American taxpayers more than $178 billion (in today’s dollars).

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