Halliburton subsidiary KBR, also known as Kellogg Brown & Root, provides food, water, shelter, laundry service and other logistical support for troops under a 2001 contract that has been extended several times.
Halliburton is a Texas-based oil services conglomerate once led by Vice President Dick Cheney, who owns stock and still receives deferred compensation from the company. Bush administration officials have come under fire since the beginning of the war in Iraq for awarding more than $10 billion to the company and its subsidiaries in 2003 and 2004, some of it in no-bid contracts. There have been allegations of fraud, poor work, overpricing and other abuse.
"It has taken them far too long," Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said of the Army. "I believe literally hundreds of millions, and probably billions, of dollars have been wasted — it's almost an unbelievable amount of waste and abuse and likely fraud."
Earlier in the day in a speech on the Senate floor, he held up a hand towel that he said cost double what it should have because the company "wanted its name embroidered on the towels given to the troops."
"Taxpayers can breathe easier knowing that the days of $45 cases of soda and $100 bags of laundry are coming to a close," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
Now that we are trying to get out of the Iraq mess, Halliburton has reaped all it can, so these Republicans will put what's left out for bids. Cute.
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