House Proceeding 05-13-09 on May 13th, 2009 :: 0:13:50 to 0:20:10
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0:13:46 to 0:14:06( Edit History Discussion )

Robert E. Andrews: work on the armed services committee. it's much appreciated. i yield five minutes to my friend and colleague, the chairman of the armed panel on defense ac suspicion reform, the gentleman from new jersey, mr. rob andrews. the speaker pro tempore: the minutes.

0:13:50 to 0:20:10( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Robert E. Andrews

0:14:07 to 0:14:27( Edit History Discussion )

Robert E. Andrews: mr. andrews: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. you mr. andrews: i thank the chairman for yielding. mr. speaker, my colleagues, there's an understandable frustration and cynicism in our country about our political season system. there are people who believe that all we do is argue. that the two parties never agree

0:14:28 to 0:14:50( Edit History Discussion )

Robert E. Andrews: on anything and when we do agree on something, it's on something symbolic or inconsequential. i think beyond the value of the substance of this legislation is the value of showing how those caricatures of the american political process are not always true. this has been a very substantive and very significant process and

0:14:51 to 0:15:11( Edit History Discussion )

Robert E. Andrews: it was led by outstanding bipartisan leadership from mr. skelton, the chairman of the armed services committee who had the foresight to put together this panel and empower us with the staff resources and time to do the job well, mr. mchugh, who loaned both his expertise and his personal credibility to this

0:15:12 to 0:15:34( Edit History Discussion )

Robert E. Andrews: effort, both of which are in significant supply. i'd also like to thank mr. conaway from texas, the ranking member of the panel, for his outstanding contributions. each member of the panel, both republican and democratic, for their diligence in this effort and most assuredly, the hardworking staff people who

0:15:35 to 0:15:55( Edit History Discussion )

Robert E. Andrews: made the product possible. aaron and andrew, janice, matt from my office, we appreciate their efforts and many others. you've heard the chairman and others say earlier that the general accountability office has identified $296 billion in

0:15:56 to 0:16:17( Edit History Discussion )

Robert E. Andrews: cost overruns, that's just overruns, in major weapons systems. and as the chairman said, had we not incurred these overruns, that's enough money to pay for the salaries of the troops and the health benefits for the troops and their families for nearly 2 1/2 years. that's the opportunity cost for

0:16:18 to 0:16:38( Edit History Discussion )

Robert E. Andrews: the problem that we are facing today. the house is encouraged to pass this bill because we believe that faces -- this faces that problem by implementing four very important changes. the first has to do with independence. the people who will be doing cost estimates, engineering and

0:16:39 to 0:17:01( Edit History Discussion )

Robert E. Andrews: conception wal scientific evaluations and scheduling analyses will not be people vested in the success of the weapons system. they'll be people vested in protection of the taxpayer dollar and providing the very best value for those who wear the uniform. the second principle is looking very critically at the development of these weapons

0:17:02 to 0:17:23( Edit History Discussion )

Robert E. Andrews: systems as early as possible in the process. by the time 10% of the money is spent on these weapons stple -- systems, 70% of the money is obligated. that is to say, on or before the time that we decide to build or not build a weapons system, we are already far into the process

0:17:24 to 0:17:44( Edit History Discussion )

Robert E. Andrews: whereby political constituency builds up, hundreds of thousands of workers, thousands of contractors, political constituencies around the country who understandably advocate for these programs as if they were a public works project. well, they're not. the idea behind these programs is to provide the very best tools to those who wear the

0:17:45 to 0:18:08( Edit History Discussion )

Robert E. Andrews: uniform of this country at the appropriate price for the taxpayer. by getting involved earlier in the process we make it far more likely that when a bad judgment has been made, when we've set off on the wrong course, that course can be reversed or terminated as it should be. the third principle in this bill

0:18:09 to 0:18:30( Edit History Discussion )

Robert E. Andrews: is to give intensive attention, intensive care, to weapons systems that have been mr. perriello: mitted to go forward, even though -- that have been permitted to go forward even though they haven't forward. if there is a true national security reason that those weapons systems should go forward beyond that milestone, it is very important that they be looked at carefully and on an

0:18:31 to 0:18:51( Edit History Discussion )

Robert E. Andrews: ongoing basis. that is what this bill provides. and in those, unfortunately many instances, where the programs far exceed the cost that's originally estimated, by 25%, by 50%, this legislation says that if the programs are not

0:18:52 to 0:19:13( Edit History Discussion )

Robert E. Andrews: terminated and if they're not terminated bause there is a strong national security reason not to terminate them or a strong economic reason not to terminate them, they must be watched with great intensive attention and finally the statute, if i may just ask for one more minute, mr. chairman. mr. skelton: i yield the

0:19:14 to 0:19:35( Edit History Discussion )

Robert E. Andrews: gentleman an additional minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recogzed for an additional minute. mr. andrews: thank you, mr. speaker. finally the product before us has a very strong but flexible provision to prohibit undue conflicts of interest. frankly, this body does not aspire to micromanage the process of who can participate in contracting and who cannot.

0:19:36 to 0:19:57( Edit History Discussion )

Robert E. Andrews: what we are committed to is that all of those who are serving the public in this process serve only one master. that they're acting on behalf of the uniformed personnel and the taxpayers and not on behalf of anyone else who has an economic interesin the outcome of their deliberations. this is a substantive piece

0:19:58 to 0:20:11( Edit History Discussion )

Robert E. Andrews: legislation that happened because the two parties worked together, because they listened to to the -- to the best experts and because we put aside the squabbling in which we all engage to do what's right by our country.