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“SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND SECRETARY OF ENERGY MUST ACCOUNT FOR WASTED MONEY” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Commerce was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H1702-H1703 on March 5, 1996.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND SECRETARY OF ENERGY MUST ACCOUNT FOR WASTED
MONEY
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Quinn). Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Tiahrt] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, this country and this legislative body and the administration have been struggling to achieve a balanced budget. The people really do not understand this problem, and, frankly, I do not either.
The working Americans balance their checking accounts monthly. I cannot think of a business in Kansas, where I am the Fourth District Congressman, or a nonprofit organization or an individual that has not balanced their budget over the last 26 years, nowhere except right here in the Federal Government.
This Congress has also been striving to be a House of the people, bringing common sense from the common people back to Government. But we have had many obstacles in achieving that.
The administration has submitted multiple budgets that did not balance. The President personally lobbied against the balanced budget amendment, which passed in the House and failed by only one vote in the U.S. Senate, and the President, in his last budget, which was scored as a balanced budget by the CBO, has 95 percent of the savings in the last 2 years, which would be after his administration, assuming that he would be successful next November.
Perhaps the most confusing, though, is how the President condones actions that are directly in opposition to achieving a balanced budget. I am speaking of the waste and the abuse and the potentially fraudulent activity that have been occurring in the Department of Commerce and the Department of Energy. The President's Secretary of Commerce, Secretary Ron Brown, has allowed the excessive issuance of Government credit cards; for example, half of the employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, NOAA, as it is called, have been issued Government credit cards. Even nongovernment employees have been issued Government credit cards. Reportedly, there have been 600 instances where they have taken Government credit cards and used an automatic teller to receive cash, cash benefits, unaccountable for. I wonder how long do people like Tim Schwilling, who works at the Boeing Co. delivering parts, or Craig Faroh, who works for Sedgwick County, how long do they have to work to pay in tax to the Federal Government to just have it taken out in cash benefits, unaccounted for?
There is Mr. Clinton's Secretary of Energy, Secretary O'Leary, who has been known for her excessive travel. Some call her a congenital flyer, over 100 domestic trips, 16 overseas trips. The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Hoke] and myself asked for a General Accounting Office audit of two overseas trips, South Africa and India, and the GAO found out Secretary O'Leary could not account for $255,000 of taxpayers' money, a quarter of a million dollars. We have called for her resignation.
This Congress has wanted accountability from the administration, accountability to the people, because it is the people's money.
It is known that the President has opposed a balanced budget during his administration. You cannot balance the budget when the presidential appointees, like Secretary Brown and Secretary O'Leary, waste taxpayers' dollars and remain unaccountable for their actions.
I ask for the President to ask them to account for the money that has been wasted and resign from their office.
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