Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MILLER-MEEKS. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Burlison for yielding me time and for his support of this important legislation, H.R. 1722, the Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act.

I also offer special thanks to my fellow Iowan, Senator Joni Ernst, who is leading this bill in the Senate. She has been a true champion when it comes to exposing Washington's waste and protecting the hard- earned dollars of the American people.

Madam Speaker, Washington's worst-kept secret is its prolific spending problem. Families in Iowa and all across this country have to balance their checkbooks every single month. They budget. They plan, and when money is tight, they make it work or they do without.

Washington should be held to that very same standard, especially at a time when our national debt is inching toward $400 trillion. However, instead of accountability, we get boondoggles.

Take Governor Newsom's high-speed rail in California. It was supposed to cost $33 billion and connect Los Angeles to San Francisco by 2020. Today, it is more than $95 billion over budget and years behind schedule.

After more than a decade and billions of taxpayer dollars, they are only now beginning to lay track, and the promised line between Los Angeles and San Francisco is nowhere in sight. What the people were promised and what they got are two very different things.

However, it is not just California. In Honolulu, a rail project is $4.8 billion over budget, with its completion slipping from 2020 all the way to 2031. In Columbus, a corridor project is 19 years behind schedule. The Federal Reserve's renovation ballooned to nearly $2.5 billion. Air Force One is billions over budget and years behind. The VA's electronic health records system, meant to serve our veterans, tripled from $16 billion to nearly $50 billion.

Madam Speaker, these are not rounding errors. These are betrayals of the people who have paid for them.

That is why I introduced the Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act. It is simple. It requires the Federal Government to publicly disclose any taxpayer-funded project that is more than $1 billion over budget or more than 5 years behind schedule. No more hiding and no more burying the failures where no one can find them. Sunlight, as they say, is the best disinfectant.

Here is the truth: The American people have a right to know where their money goes. Every dollar Washington wastes is a dollar taken from a farmer in Iowa, a nurse working a double shift, or a young family trying to get ahead.

I did not come to Washington to protect its comfortable habit of wasting taxpayer money. I came here to defend the people who pay the bills. This bill puts them front and center where they belong.

I thank Senator Ernst once again for her partnership, and I urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this commonsense legislation.

The people of Iowa are watching. The people of America are watching. Let's give them the transparency they deserve.

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