Claire McCaskill

McCaskill So 'God-Damn Mad' About Wartime Contracting Abuses

Susan Crabtree | September 21, 2011, 5:08PM

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO)

While channeling President Harry Truman and fuming about wartime contracting waste and abuse, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) dropped a "god-damn" just for emphasis at a Senate hearing Wednesday.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who chaired the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, was thanking McCaskill for her "excellent testimony," noting that he was struck by her reference to Truman who proceeded over a bumpy reconversion from a wartime economy.

"I know you're keeping that spirit alive," he told her. "It struck me that if we could go and interview him about this commission report and then release the transcript, we would have to delete several expletives."

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CT-SEN

Former GOP Rep. Shays To Seek Comeback In Connecticut Senate Race

Eric Kleefeld | August 22, 2011, 1:22PM

Former Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT)

Former Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT), who was defeated for re-election in the 2008 Democratic wave after 21 years in office, has announced that he will run for Senate in 2012, to succeed retiring Democratic-aligned independent Sen. Joe Lieberman.

As the Greenwich Times reports, Shays moved to Maryland soon after his 2008 defeat. A check of the voter rolls show that he was re-registered as a Connecticut voter just this past Friday in Bridgeport, where he and wife bought a condominium last year when he was considering a run for governor.

"Betsi and I excited to be back in Connecticut," Shays, told the paper. "These are all the steps that I am taking so that I can have the opportunity to run for Senate. I hope to be on the ballot next November."

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Commission on Wartime Contracting

U.S. Needs To Improve Safeguards To Avoid Rehiring 'Bad Actor' Defense Contractors

Susan Crabtree | February 28, 2011, 1:58PM

The U.S. government's dependence on private contractors for work in Afghanistan and Iraq has hampered competition and favored incumbent contractors regardless of whether they have a record of criminal or fraudulent activities, according to a new report from the Commission on Wartime Contracting.

That finding was a focus of a Commission on Wartime Contracting hearing Monday that discussed methods to exact more accountability from private contractors, including recording incumbent contractors' performance assessments into a federal database accessible to all government agencies. Michael Thibault, the former deputy director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency, and former Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT) chair the commission.

"If you hired somebody to paint your house and they tracked paint all over your carpet, you probably wouldn't use them again and you might even negotiate a price that was less than you originally agreed to," said Wartime Contracting Commissioner Grant Green.

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Iraq

Report: U.S. Has Wasted Tens Of Billions Of Dollars On Contractors In Iraq And Afghanistan

Susan Crabtree | February 28, 2011, 10:05AM

private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A new report from a bipartisan commission set up to scrutinize the unprecedented use of contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan concludes that the United States has wasted tens of billions of the nearly $177 billion that has been spent on those contracts and grants since 2002.

The report, titled "At What Risk? Correcting Over-reliance on Contractors in Contingency Operations," said its estimate may even understate the problem because it may not take into full account ill-conceived projects, poor planning and oversight by the U.S. government, as well as criminal behavior and blatant corruption by both government and contractor employees.

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