tierney: yes, 15,593. mrs. capito: and the other questn i would a, i know you have to go to approprias to get theon allotd, but what will the pproximate cost of sething li ts, this is what, in this time of debt andeficit and we needo cut our spendin here, i think we need to be vigilant othe bottom line. what is the bottoline of this amdment? i yield to the gtleman. . tierney: i thank you for raising that point that this is a two-step process. this part talks about whethe we have t law to enable us to appropriate the money. we're not apprriating the money now, i tnk that's a debe for another date and time if we dece we want to be fair to these people but the total for the $15,593 people, according to the department, would be $10,372,661.61. moe or less. mrs. capito: thank you. very prece, ippreciate that i still he skticism about even $10 millnwhich in everyday dollars is still quite a bit of money and we ne to look at what we're doing onhe bottom line here. so i --while i'm sympathetic and i think the amendment

>> good morning, chairman tierney, ranking member flank. thank you for inviting me here to address the challenges of contracting in combat zones, specifically to address the issue of who are our subcontractors. permit me to provide three premises that frame my remarks. first, the iraq experience underscores the truism that contracting in a war zone is uniquely challenging and vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse. second, that fraud, waste and abuse will get worse unless a regime is implemented that balances the principle of effective financial stewardship with the goal of mission accomplishment. third, a weakly resourced contract corps, such as we've seen in iraq and afghanistan, will harm oversight and, as you pointed out, potentially undermine mission accomplishment. we' we've been studying the problems arising from iraq contracting for the last six years. we've issued 230 reports. that's what -- we've gotten into some of the subcontracting issues. in those cases, we've seen that the primes don't frequently know who their subcontractors a

john tierney of massachusetts chaired this 2.5 hour hearing. >> i ask unanimous consent that the hearingbusiness days so that all members of the subcommittee can offer their statements for the record. without objection, so ordered. and a constitutional deeocracy, a charge -- congress is charged with overseeing the dax -- the executive branch executes its duties accorded law. this country has invested this subcommittee with a cleer mandate to redoubt wait, fraud, and abuse wherever we may find it. real oversight is a powerful tool for transparency and accountability, not for political grandstanding. today's report by the majority staff represents constructive oversight. after six months, 31 witnesses, 25,000 documents, hundreds of hours of work, the report provides the american people significant insight into how the department of defense is manning the supply chain for the troops in afghanistan. an investigation is akin to a puzzle. we have put the." -- pieces on the table, put together the edges, and fill them enough detail to see what the pitcher would look like, but there portions to

chairman tierney, congressman flake, distinguished members of the subcommittee on national security and foreign affairs, thank you for this opportunity -pto discuss the role of the united states army and the department of defense management of oversight of trucking contracts in afghanistan. . >> all my duties were in baghdad, travel freely throughout iraq and afghanistan. let me state from the outside -- outset that this is absolutely vital to the system of our forces in afghanistan. overseeing services in an austere environment with a poor financial systems and during hostilities is a dangerous and difficult task that is being performed daily throughout afghanistan. for the 90% of our forces receive food, water, equipment and construction materials and other badly needed supplies. in the last year, since may of 2009, there have been more than 60,000 trucking missions. each mission is an effective means to meet the needs of our war fighters whose numbers will increase to 90,000. mr. chairman, in all army contract in operations worldwide, we strive to be responsive to our war fighters wh

congressman tierney is part of the committee on house oversight and reform. he said in an interview on monday that he hopes to report will help members of congress to the analyst with the they think this is the most effective way to go about dealing with terrorism, or the most effectively. the report's conclusiins will be introduced at a hearing today in which officials are scheduled to testify. the lawmaker will not comment, represent give fleet from arizona, until he has seen the entire report. looking at how the of the papers are covering this issue. here is one concerning the taliban taking u.s. funds. the trucking contractors say they pay as much as $150 -- $150,000 per month to warlords in protection money. let's go to the phones and hear from michael on the democrats' line, in queens, new york. caller: good morning. i have a quick question. can you explain to me why this is the first time that i have gotten through on c-span? every time you see the party lines, why is it that republicans are always on the top line? host: well, do not hang up yet. we do

congressman tierney is part of ppthe committee on house ooersit and reform. he said in an interview on monday that he hopes to report help members of congress to the analyst with the they think is the most effective way to go about dealing with terrorism, or the most effectively. the report's conclusiins will be introduced at a hearing today in which offia are scheduled to testify. the lawmaker will not comment, give fleet from arizona, until he has seen the entire report. looking at how the of t papers are covering this issue. here is one concerning the taliban taking u.s. fus. the trucking contractors say as $150 -- much $150,000 per month to warlords in protection money. let's go to the phones and hear michael on the democrats' line, in queens, new york. caller: good mooning. quick question. can you explain to me why this is the first time that i have gooten through on c-span? see the party lines, why is it that republicans are always on the top line? hot: well, do not hang up yet. we do change that up so that are notans or democrats given preference. we c

according to a recent eye-opening report by subcommittee chairman tierney, we learn the u.s. military is funding a multibillion dollar protection racket a good portion of $2.16 billion in transportation contract is being paid to corrupt public officials, war lords and the taliban to get needed supplies to our troops. we are funding the very insurgency we are fighting and we recently learned that at least $3.18 billion in cash has been transferred out of afghanistan since 2007. mostly to line the pockets of the nation's elite. on top of that, it is -- it has also been reported those same afghan elite are being shielded from attempts to investigate these cases of corruption. we simply cannot afford to continue to spend billions -- send billions to afghanistan only to see it end up in the hands on corrupt officials and the same insurgents we are fighting. we have to start fighting smarter, not harder, and that starts with asking the right questions. a reassessment of our strategy in afghanistan is due in december and one question must be answered -- is this the best way to fight

welch and i planned tierney were in afghanissan llst year we listened to agriculture ministers explain that for a simple agriculture farmer, the farmer or company they were contracting with were stopped 20 or 25 times for various forms of illegal payment, i can't imagine the added complexity when you're dealing with security concerns of + national military shipments, military convoys. my question to you, mr. motsak, is on the issue of the reports that our investigators detiled, were made to the departmmnt from the ddfferent contracting pntities. i appreciate the fact that a lot of this information is new to you and you have to figure out what to do with it. but we have a volume of reports that went from ccntracting agencies to the department of defense that detailed a variety of different leeels of information regarding payoffs. one memo from one particular contractor to a contract manager detailed, quote, he was ppproached by taliban personnel to talk about paymenters in safe passage of convoys through the area. theyytalked to others who paid the taliban for safe passage. everyone was