that provides critical personnel authority for the special inspector general for afghanistan known as c.r. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. faleomavaega: mr. speaker, since 2001, the united states has devoted $32 billion in humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to afghanistan. in an effort to combat waste, fraud and abuse with regard to the expenditure of these funds, congress created the special inspector general for afghanistan reconstruction or commonly known as sigar in the national defense act of 2008. that legislation empowers sigar to conducts audits, inspections of all u.s. assistance programs in afghanistan. congress intended that sigar would exercise its authority swiftly. and it came into existence in 2008 in july of last year with an authorization to hire 18 auditors, 13 inspectors and three investigators. but from the beginning, sigar has been hindered by certain limitations contained in standard federal government personnel authorities, and by the difficulty of attracting qualified candidates to work in