Pentagon Fraud and the ACORN Standard

WASHINGTON, October 2 – The Senate last night passed an amendment by
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would require the Department of
Defense to calculate how much the Pentagon pays companies that
committed fraud.

The measure, added to a defense appropriations bill, also would make
the Pentagon recommend how to penalize contractors that repeatedly
cheated the government out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Sanders contrasted the sweeping scope of defense contractor fraud to
misdeeds by a few employees of the Association of Community
Organizations for Reform Now. The ACORN workers were fired for what
Sanders called “an outrageous and absurd discussion with actors.” The
sledge-hammer response in the House of Representatives and the Senate
was to cut off federal funds for ACORN.

“Virtually every major defense contractor in this country has been
engaged in systemic, illegal, and fraudulent behavior, while receiving
hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money.  We’re not talking
here about the $53 million that ACORN received over 15 years.  We’re in
fact talking about defense contractors who have received many, many
billions in defense contracts and year after year, time after time,
violated the law, ripping off the taxpayers of this country big time,”
Sanders said.

According to the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight, the three
largest government contractors – Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop
Grumman – all have a history riddled with fraud and other illegal
behavior.  Altogether, the three companies engaged in 109 instances of
misconduct since 1995, and were fined $2.9 billion.  How were they
punished?  In one year alone, the big-three pocketed $77 billion in
government contracts in 2007.

With a $12 trillion national debt and the biggest budget deficit in
history, Sanders said, “Taxpayers want to know that the money we spend
– whether it is for defense, housing, education, or any other purpose –
is spent as wisely and as cost-effectively as possible.  They also want
to know that the corporations and institutions and individuals who
receive this funding are honest and trustworthy.”

To read the senator’s floor statement and for a copy of the amendment, click here.  To watch his speech, click here.