Lawmakers to Insist on Oversight of Iraq Money

[kskiska]

Senior lawmakers in both parties, frustrated by several years of Pentagon secrecy about wartime spending, indicated yesterday that they will not give the Bush administration a free hand in the use of a new $25 billion installment for the war in Iraq.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) said in a statement that his panel would "thoroughly vet" the request and "insist on accountability for the expenditure of these funds."

That position was endorsed by Sen. Robert C. Byrd (W.Va.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, who described the administration's accounting of money for Iraq as "a record of confusion, obfuscation, bumbling, denial and deception."

Chad Kolton, spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, said the administration "will work with the leadership up there to see what's the most appropriate way of doing this."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6834-2004May6.html

[crossroads]

1. A bit late to lock the barn, eh?

Accountability? To politicians - the foxes that guard the henhouse?

:crazy: