Senate Republicans killed an amendment introduced by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) today that would have protected taxpayers by establishing a special committee charged with digging into allegations of fraud, waste, bribery and other abuses committed by Halliburton and other war profiteers in Iraq.
The amendment, was voted down by 53 to 44. It was introduced during Senate consideration of the 2006 Defense Authorization bill, and would have established a special committee modeled after Senator Harry Truman's World War II committee, which cost just thousands, but saved taxpayers $15 billion in 1940s' dollars.
This is the third time in two years that the Senate has rejected Dorgan’s proposal.
Dorgan and his colleagues at the Senate Democratic Policy Committee have already been conducting a series of hearings, but their committee is not an officially constituted Senate committee, and therefore cannot compel witnesses to appear under oath.
Yesterday, while Dorgan was reviewing the litany of waste, fraud, and other abuses committed by Halliburton on the Senate floor (and on C-SPAN), Sen. John Ensign, R-NV, made a surprise announcement that "I plan on holding hearings on exactly this. I plan on pulling that curtain back. I plan on getting into the investigation in the same way as Harry Truman. If it happens to be it is embarrassing to the administration, we are goiing to find out the truth on this -- just like Harry Truman went after those cost-plus contracts in those days ... I am committing to the Senator that the things he is talking about right now will be fully investigated by our committee, and we are going to uphold our oversight responsibility of this administration."
(Ensign chairs a subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee – known as the Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support.)
If he follows through, this is great news. Because for two years, the Republican-controlled Senate has resisted public calls for a formal investigation into Halliburton, once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, even though it is being investigated by numerous inspectors general and the Dept. of Justice for numerous violations, including criminal bid-rigging, overcharging of taxpayers, bribery and criminally profiting in a nation believed by President Bush to sponsor terrorism.
Although many Republicans have deflected the issue by maintaining that the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction is conducting an investigation, the Senate has failed to provide its own oversight, while the DoD's IG has pulled its people out.
The Army Corps of Engineers' top civilian contracting official, Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, was demoted in August after blowing the whistle on the Corps and Halliburton. "I can unequivocally state that the abuse related to contracts awarded to [Halliburton] represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career," Greenhouse told Dorgan and other members of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.
Unless we put the heat on, there is no guarantee that Ensign will follow through on the pledge. Anyone who wants to see this cronyism and corruption fully investigated can use the toll-free numbers to the Hill to tell them how important it is: 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
* Contact Sen. Ensign and congratulate him for his decision to hold formal hearings! Ask him to publicly release the dates on which the hearings will be held.
* Contact your senators and ask them to support Sen. Ensign's decision to hold hearings, and ban Halliburton from any new contracts until all ongoing criminal investigations, as well as Ensign’s pending investigation, are concluded.
BTW, to see how your Senator voted on today’s defeated Dorgan amendment (S. Amend. 2476), go here.