Sen. Dodd on Reconstruction in Iraq

BRIEFING ON THE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS
COMMITTEE HEARING ON RECONSTRUCTION IN IRAQ

CHRISTOPHER DODD
Senator from Connecticut

March 11, 2003

SEN. DODD: Well, I, along with Senator Lugar, was deeply upset, disturbed today to discover that the administration refused to send either the -- General Garner or the head of USAID to testify before the Foreign Relations Committee regarding the estimated costs of winning the peace in Iraq, on the assumption there will be a military conflict, and the cost of our participation in -- on the humanitarian relief efforts -- food, medicine and the like.

I found it tremendously disturbing to find out as well, of course, that these -- there have been at least four, maybe five corporations that have been asked to submit bids, between $900 million and a billion dollars, on reconstruction costs in Iraq, and yet here are these members of the Foreign Relations Committee denied the opportunity in a public hearing to question and to be given estimates, even rough estimates, of what the cost of this will be to the American taxpayer.

I know that those estimates exist. You're not going to convince me they don't. They've got a best-case and a worst-case scenario. And they have the numbers, and they're refusing to give those of us in Congress an opportunity to review them and to ask questions about them. And as a result of that, we can't tell the taxpayers in this country, who are going to be asked to foot the bill of all of this, what the charge is going to be in the aftermath, all of this.

So I'm hopeful that those numbers will be forthcoming, but there's an arrogance here to deny the Congress of the United States an opportunity to ask civil questions of people charged with trying to provide estimates of what the cost of this will be. And I think Democrats and Republicans are equally disturbed about this.

Q There's just as much frustration on the Republican side --

SEN. DODD: Well, Dick Lugar was very mild, as he normally is, about it. But he was certainly disappointed. I let him speak for himself. He chose his own words. I'm choosing mine. But I think the sentiments are the same.

When you hold a hearing -- here we are, literally maybe hours away from a major conflict, and we want to have some idea of what the estimates of the costs of this are going to be, both cost of the war, which obviously is a separate committee, but then the cost of trying to provide relief after this. Who's going to support us? Who will join us? What effect will these decisions have on the nongovernmental organizations or relief organizations, international organizations we may be asking to participate in providing relief?

It's extremely important, it seems to me, that Congress be given some information about what the estimates are going to be.

And I don't know of a single person in this community or anywhere in the country who would believe for a minute that the administration hasn't run cost figures on all of this and has some idea of what the best and worst case scenarios would be. None of us expect absolutely specific numbers, but we certainly anticipate getting some sense of a ballpark of what all of this would be. And I think the refusal to stand up to even come before the Congress, to turn down the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee when he asked them to testify before them, is arrogant. And there's no other word that I can think of but that to describe that action.

Q (Inaudible) -- Senator, besides coming and telling us your views? Is there anything you might do? I mean --

SEN. DODD: Well, you'd have to talk to the leader, Democratic leader, but I know Senator Levin and others are concerned about this and have wanted to ask the administration specifically to turn over any numbers they may have to the appropriate members of Congress.

Q Senator -- (inaudible) -- outside of the budget process itself is a political matter. Aren't these questions that should have been asked before you voted in October? And isn't it a little late now?

SEN. DODD: Not necessarily. I wouldn't have expected necessarily to have them then. But certainly, they do now. And the idea -- here we're about to have a budget resolution that's going to be voted on in the Budget Committee this week in both the House and the Senate; the budget's going to be before the Congress next week. It's no mystery to me why they're reluctant to share these numbers with the American public, knowing what the figures may be, some of the estimates may be.

And if you're going to convince the American public to support this war effort and to support the aftermath of it, then it seems to me you ought to be coming clean with what your rough estimates are so that you can sustain those levels of support. I guarantee you that there will be people after the fact who are going to be saying, "Why are we spending this much money when you never gave us an indication of what the costs would be, when we have so many demands here at home?" That's going to make it hard to sustain the kind of commitment that's going to be necessary to rebuild Iraq after --

Q What about the general lack of discussion of the war -- the general lack of debate? You were on the floor Friday, but that's been a rare occasion up here.

SEN. DODD: Well, part of it is there's not a matter before the Senate to vote on; that's one of the reasons. There isn't a proposition before the Senate. And there's been a reasonable decision not to try and bring up another resolution. But certainly, I happen to agree. I think we ought to have more time to debate this, but obviously, when you do it on days in which there are no votes here and members go back to their states, it's difficult to get the numbers and members to show up. But I'm sorry we don't have more participation.

Q Did the administration give you a reason why they were pulling -- (inaudible)?

SEN. DODD: No, they didn't. You'd have to ask Dick Lugar the reason. All I know is that they were -- we were notified by the administration that these two witnesses would not be forthcoming. Now in fairness, Mr. Natsios, who's at AID, had come up and testified on other matters before the committee. But General Garner -- according to the administration, since this -- the handling, if you will, of the administration of the reconstruction period is going to be done out of the Department of Defense, according to the administration, it seemed to be incumbent upon the administration to provide General Garner to the committee so that we could have some civil questions about what the costs may be to this reconstruction --

Q Would you favor subpoenaing, if it comes down to it?

SEN. DODD: No, I don't want to get into that. Let the leader decide what the best course of action is to be at this particular point.

(Audio break.)

SEN. DODD: (In progress following audio break) -- to a billion dollars for the reconstruction in Iraq. What do they know that I don't know? Why is it some executive at a corporation can find out what the costs may be but a member of Congress cannot? Now, that's what I find outrageous at this particular juncture.

And again, in light of the fact that we're going to be having a budget vote without any numbers before us, all the budget numbers we're going to be talking about have nothing to do with the cost of this conflict or the aftermath of it, and it seems to me that the American public have a right to know that when we're being asked to support a budget that's going to increase the deficit by more than $2 trillion, without the cost of this war or the cost of the reconstruction period afterwards.

Q Can you just answer your own question then, Senator? Why can Halliburton and Brown & Root get a briefing and the chairman can't?

SEN. DODD: Well, apparently, I think the administration believes that they can get away with it, that the Congress will just -- will not do anything about it. My hope would be that the leadership here would respond to that and insist upon getting some of these numbers.

Thank you all.

Q Senator, do you think that there's any kind of retaliation for what the administration says was unfair treatment of the president of Afghanistan last week in front of the Foreign Relations Committee?

SEN. DODD: I don't believe so. I don't know of any connection there about that.

Thanks, everyone.

Q Thank you, Senator.

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Search WMD profiles Iraqi entities of concern Iraq's suppliers UN documents Government documents Controlled items Perspectives	BRIEFING ON THE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE HEARING ON RECONSTRUCTION IN IRAQ CHRISTOPHER DODD Senator from Connecticut March 11, 2003 SEN. DODD: Well, I, along with Senator Lugar, was deeply upset, disturbed today to discover that the administration refused to send either the -- General Garner or the head of USAID to testify before the Foreign Relations Committee regarding the estimated costs of winning the peace in Iraq, on the assumption there will be a military conflict, and the cost of our participation in -- on the humanitarian relief efforts -- food, medicine and the like. I found it tremendously disturbing to find out as well, of course, that these -- there have been at least four, maybe five corporations that have been asked to submit bids, between $900 million and a billion dollars, on reconstruction costs in Iraq, and yet here are these members of the Foreign Relations Committee denied the opportunity in a public hearing to question and to be given estimates, even rough estimates, of what the cost of this will be to the American taxpayer. I know that those estimates exist. You're not going to convince me they don't. They've got a best-case and a worst-case scenario. And they have the numbers, and they're refusing to give those of us in Congress an opportunity to review them and to ask questions about them. And as a result of that, we can't tell the taxpayers in this country, who are going to be asked to foot the bill of all of this, what the charge is going to be in the aftermath, all of this. So I'm hopeful that those numbers will be forthcoming, but there's an arrogance here to deny the Congress of the United States an opportunity to ask civil questions of people charged with trying to provide estimates of what the cost of this will be. And I think Democrats and Republicans are equally disturbed about this. Q There's just as much frustration on the Republican side -- SEN. DODD: Well, Dick Lugar was very mild, as he normally is, about it. But he was certainly disappointed. I let him speak for himself. He chose his own words. I'm choosing mine. But I think the sentiments are the same. When you hold a hearing -- here we are, literally maybe hours away from a major conflict, and we want to have some idea of what the estimates of the costs of this are going to be, both cost of the war, which obviously is a separate committee, but then the cost of trying to provide relief after this. Who's going to support us? Who will join us? What effect will these decisions have on the nongovernmental organizations or relief organizations, international organizations we may be asking to participate in providing relief? It's extremely important, it seems to me, that Congress be given some information about what the estimates are going to be. And I don't know of a single person in this community or anywhere in the country who would believe for a minute that the administration hasn't run cost figures on all of this and has some idea of what the best and worst case scenarios would be. None of us expect absolutely specific numbers, but we certainly anticipate getting some sense of a ballpark of what all of this would be. And I think the refusal to stand up to even come before the Congress, to turn down the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee when he asked them to testify before them, is arrogant. And there's no other word that I can think of but that to describe that action. Q (Inaudible) -- Senator, besides coming and telling us your views? Is there anything you might do? I mean -- SEN. DODD: Well, you'd have to talk to the leader, Democratic leader, but I know Senator Levin and others are concerned about this and have wanted to ask the administration specifically to turn over any numbers they may have to the appropriate members of Congress. Q Senator -- (inaudible) -- outside of the budget process itself is a political matter. Aren't these questions that should have been asked before you voted in October? And isn't it a little late now? SEN. DODD: Not necessarily. I wouldn't have expected necessarily to have them then. But certainly, they do now. And the idea -- here we're about to have a budget resolution that's going to be voted on in the Budget Committee this week in both the House and the Senate; the budget's going to be before the Congress next week. It's no mystery to me why they're reluctant to share these numbers with the American public, knowing what the figures may be, some of the estimates may be. And if you're going to convince the American public to support this war effort and to support the aftermath of it, then it seems to me you ought to be coming clean with what your rough estimates are so that you can sustain those levels of support. I guarantee you that there will be people after the fact who are going to be saying, "Why are we spending this much money when you never gave us an indication of what the costs would be, when we have so many demands here at home?" That's going to make it hard to sustain the kind of commitment that's going to be necessary to rebuild Iraq after -- Q What about the general lack of discussion of the war -- the general lack of debate? You were on the floor Friday, but that's been a rare occasion up here. SEN. DODD: Well, part of it is there's not a matter before the Senate to vote on; that's one of the reasons. There isn't a proposition before the Senate. And there's been a reasonable decision not to try and bring up another resolution. But certainly, I happen to agree. I think we ought to have more time to debate this, but obviously, when you do it on days in which there are no votes here and members go back to their states, it's difficult to get the numbers and members to show up. But I'm sorry we don't have more participation. Q Did the administration give you a reason why they were pulling -- (inaudible)? SEN. DODD: No, they didn't. You'd have to ask Dick Lugar the reason. All I know is that they were -- we were notified by the administration that these two witnesses would not be forthcoming. Now in fairness, Mr. Natsios, who's at AID, had come up and testified on other matters before the committee. But General Garner -- according to the administration, since this -- the handling, if you will, of the administration of the reconstruction period is going to be done out of the Department of Defense, according to the administration, it seemed to be incumbent upon the administration to provide General Garner to the committee so that we could have some civil questions about what the costs may be to this reconstruction -- Q Would you favor subpoenaing, if it comes down to it? SEN. DODD: No, I don't want to get into that. Let the leader decide what the best course of action is to be at this particular point. (Audio break.) SEN. DODD: (In progress following audio break) -- to a billion dollars for the reconstruction in Iraq. What do they know that I don't know? Why is it some executive at a corporation can find out what the costs may be but a member of Congress cannot? Now, that's what I find outrageous at this particular juncture. And again, in light of the fact that we're going to be having a budget vote without any numbers before us, all the budget numbers we're going to be talking about have nothing to do with the cost of this conflict or the aftermath of it, and it seems to me that the American public have a right to know that when we're being asked to support a budget that's going to increase the deficit by more than $2 trillion, without the cost of this war or the cost of the reconstruction period afterwards. Q Can you just answer your own question then, Senator? Why can Halliburton and Brown & Root get a briefing and the chairman can't? SEN. DODD: Well, apparently, I think the administration believes that they can get away with it, that the Congress will just -- will not do anything about it. My hope would be that the leadership here would respond to that and insist upon getting some of these numbers. Thank you all. Q Senator, do you think that there's any kind of retaliation for what the administration says was unfair treatment of the president of Afghanistan last week in front of the Foreign Relations Committee? SEN. DODD: I don't believe so. I don't know of any connection there about that. Thanks, everyone. Q Thank you, Senator.