Rep. Steve Russell featured more than $117 million worth of failed government efforts in the first of a “Waste Watch” series dedicated to exposing the squandering of taxpayer money.
The freshman Republican from Oklahoma took up the mantle of another Oklahoman, retired Sen. Tom Coburn, whose annual “Wastebook” publication also chronicled flagrant examples of frivolous, illegal and wasteful government spending.
“I intend to scrutinize all areas of the federal budget,” Russell said. “I look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress to dig into these and other issues to identify ways to save taxpayer money,” he said. Russell is a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Among the 10 failed projects in Russell’s first edition of Waste Watch were $1.1 million in parties and conferences billed to the U.S. Agency for International Development by a contractor, $207,297 of State Department funding that accidentally backed an anti-American film, and $456,669 on walls in an Afghan training facility that melted in the rain.
The report addressed some of the most serious spending offenses with a light touch.
“Bilbo Baggins from the Lord of the Rings series was happy just to reach his ‘one hundred-and-eleventieth’ birthday. The Social Security Administration, however, could do the venerable hobbit one better—according to the agency’s records, an amazing 6.5 million Americans are at least 112 years old,” the report said.
“Then again, considering only 35 mere humans worldwide are known to have reached the age of 112, perhaps the agency is having some paperwork problems.”
A number of the wasteful projects, including an $11 million contract over-payment by the Missile Defense Agency that occurred when officials refused to wait just five days for the audit that would have caught the problems, dealt with profligate spending at the Department of Defense.
Russell attributed Waste Watch’s military focus to his 21-year career in the Army, but vowed to “find alternate ways to restrain spending both in the DOD and throughout the government.” A combat veteran, Russell was deeply involved in the effort to locate and capture Saddam Hussein following the end of the War in Iraq in 2003.
Go here to read the full Waste Watch report.
