October 2007

Working Together Worked.

 

Dear friend:

 

In the last 10 days, I've been forunate enough to win passage for two major pieces of legislation in the House of Representatives, both dealing with one of the most significant and certainly the most divisive and politically-charged issue of our time: the war in Iraq. I'm very proud that both measures passed with very broad support from Republicans and Democrats.

On October 2nd, the Abercrombie-Tanner Iraq redeployment bill was approved by the House in a bi-partisan 377-46 vote. The measure requires the Bush Administration to report to Congress within 60 days, and every 90 days thereafter, on its planning for the redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq. This is the first step in bringing our troops home and ending the war. We set out to write legislation that could win support from both sides of the aisle and we succeeded.

One week later, the House passed the War Profiteering Prevention Act by another bi-partisan margin -- 375-3. I introduced the measure because a number of U.S. companies with large government contracts in Iraq have declared Open Season on the American taxpayer.

According to the Pentagon's Defense Contract Audit Agency, there have been more than $10 billion in suspect billing on Iraqi contracts. Specifically, under Halliburton's largest Iraq contract, providing support services for the troops, Pentagon auditors have found $2.4 billion in questioned and unsupported costs - including $1.9 billion in questioned costs and $450 million in unsupported costs. Yet, in prosecuting some of the abuses, courts have found that the American companies may not be subject to either Iraqi or U.S. law.

Enough! The War Profiteering Prevention Act applies the same kind of penalties to these overseas abuses as these lawbreakers would be subject to in the U.S. Conviction for such profiteering will now be a felony, punishable by jail time and fines up to $1 million.

Cleaning up the mess in Iraq and ending the war are profoundly important matters, and the Congress of the United States has a Constitutional responsibility to represent the interests of 300-million people in determining national policy. Clearly, Congress can most effectively represent those 300-million people, even on the most difficult issues, when Democrats and Republicans are willing to work together.

Aloha,

Neil Abercrombie

Member of Congress