Government Accountability
Jim Himes will bring responsibility and accountability back to Washington.
When our elected representatives act irresponsibly, they waste our money and undermine our confidence in government. Our government was intended to be of, by, and for the people - not lobbyists and contractors. Chris Shays’ failure to conduct meaningful oversight of the Bush administration, especially in relation to the conduct of the Iraq War, has resulted in an immeasurably high cost in lives and taxpayer dollars.
Oversight is hard and uncompromising-but transparency and accountability are absolutely essential to effective government. We need leaders in Washington like Jim Himes who will ask tough questions and demand real answers.
Creating Transparency and Accountability for Military Contractors
The Bush Administration has repeatedly handed government jobs to well-connected companies and then turned a blind eye while some of those contractors wasted taxpayer dollars, mismanaged projects, and committed terrible abuses. Instead of asking the tough questions that his job demands, Chris Shays has used his position on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to constantly defend and praise both Bush administration officials and private for-profit military contractors. In Congress, Jim will be committed to reducing the wasteful spending and corruption that has become all too common in defense contracting.
Restoring Openness and Competition to Contracting and Procurement
Federal contracting has skyrocketed during the Bush Administration, now amounting to a whopping 40% of discretionary spending. Such a large use of taxpayers’ dollars should have come with a corresponding increase in Congressional oversight and demands for accountability. Instead, for many years the House Oversight Committee’s workweek dwindled to a mere two or three days, while billions of dollars were spent on no-bid contracts without any guarantee that these funds were being responsibly handled. Congress should recommit to requiring transparency, efficiency, and accountability in federal contracting and procurement.
Congressional oversight of the Hurricane Katrina recovery-or the lack thereof-has been particularly shameful. At least $1 billion of the Katrina recovery effort has been wasted by federal mismanagement. Most recently it was discovered that the government wasted another $45.9 million on multi-billion dollar no-bid contracts to private companies which failed to deliver on providing temporary housing for thousands of displaced Americans. Congress must stand up to such gross fraud and abuse, and it must provide strong oversight to ensure that FEMA investigates the millions of dollars of questioned costs and recoup the money as necessary.
