Congress stiffens on war funds

[Kadie]

Congress stiffens on war funds
Lawmakers uneasy over abuse scandal make bipartisan push for financial oversight

Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Saturday, May 15, 2004

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Washington -- An increasingly restless Congress, shocked by new photos of abuse of Iraqi prisoners and frustrated by a White House request for nearly $25 billion more for the war, is starting to assume a tougher watchdog role over the conflict.

Lawmakers of both parties, for the first time since the war began, are calling on the Bush administration to provide a line-by-line accounting of spending in Iraq and Afghanistan. Several senators this week asked whether the Pentagon was trying to avoid stiff scrutiny by Congress of war-time costs.

"I'll give $50 billion, I'll give $100 billion," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. , told Pentagon officials at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. "But it seems to me that we do have an oversight responsibility as to where this money is spent. I don't think that all of that money has been well spent in the past."

Lawmakers also are expressing increasing concern about the U.S.-led coalition's ability to meet its June 30 deadline for handing over power to an interim Iraqi authority, and the Senate has scheduled hearings next week to question administration officials on the plan.

more... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/05/15/MNGD56M9SA1.DTL

[Elidor]

1. Wow. Congress suddenly remembered they're supposed to exercise oversight

I guess they kinda forgot that part of the job description after 9-11.

[Tummler]

2. That's ironic

Most of the right-wing chickenhawks in Congress "stiffened" at the outset of the war, too.

[jjmalonejr]

3. Congress gets a stiffie?

:shrug:

[Kadie]

5. LOL

[cliss]

4. I really don't understand this

Congress is first NOW asking for an itemized receipt? After all this time, they have let these lunatics operate with a carte blanche?

They should have been vigilant about this ALL ALONG. These outrageous things would not have happened if Congress had been keeping an eye on everything.