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“WASTEFUL SPENDING” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H1962 on April 10, 2000.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
WASTEFUL SPENDING
(Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, bureaucracy is a word we hear every day. The Federal Government has become so large that it is difficult to follow how individual agencies are spending taxpayer dollars.
Take the Federal Aviation Administration, for example. The FAA spent
$4 billion on an air traffic control modernization program that was unreliable, did not work, and was shut down before it was completed. Mr. Speaker, $4 billion just flew out the window.
The General Accounting Office remains concerned about the agency's poor accounting and lack of control over costs, as the agency proceeds with its new $42 billion air traffic modernization program. The GAO has every reason to be concerned about the FAA's decision-making process.
According to the Department of Transportation's report, FAA employees are using programs designed to acquaint air traffic controllers with cockpit operations for personal travel. And as my friend and colleague, the gentleman from the 17th district of Ohio (Mr. Traficant), would say, ``Just beam me up, Scotty.''
One employee took 12 weekend trips in a 15-month period to visit his family in Tampa, Florida, at taxpayers' expense.
Mr. Speaker, the waste of taxpayer dollars just will not fly any more.
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