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Al Franken on Government Reform

DFL Jr Senator (MN)


Congress needs watchdogs, not lapdogs

Franken said, “Whenever Norm Coleman is put in charge of Minnesota tax dollars, you can be sure there are corporate special interests getting a big payday. But it’s simply unconscionable that he allowed our troops to be put at risk just so that his cronies could cash in. Instead of being a watchdog, Norm Coleman was a lapdog--and every day, we learn more about the cost of his inaction.”

The Times reports: “The Pentagon’s reliance on outside contractors in Iraq is proportionately far larger than in any previous conflict, and it has fueled charges that this outsourcing has led to overbilling, fraud and shoddy and unsafe work.“ This, like so many other Tales from the Oversight-Free Zone, took place while Chairman Coleman, who accepted campaign contributions from Halliburton--described as ”the largest Pentagon contractor in Iraq,“ sat idly by.

Source: Press release, “Tales from the Oversight-Free Zone #5” , Aug 12, 2008

Investigate the misappropriation of billions on Iraq

Coleman, as chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations, didn’t even hold a single hearing into contracting by Halliburton and other corporations--while waste, fraud, and the misappropriation of billions of dollars torpedoed the reconstruction of Iraq. Every dollar that didn’t go towards getting up the electricity and the water, and putting Iraqis to work alienated the population and fueled the insurgency, making a difficult mission impossible and sending the country into total chaos.
Source: 2008 Senate campaign website, www.AlFranken.com, “Issues” , May 14, 2008

Require full disclosure of independent campaign expenditures.

Franken co-sponsored DISCLOSE Act

Congressional Summary:

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