Congressman Labrador Returns From Middle East Trip (KTVB-TV)

Posted on Feb 07, 2011

Justin Corr, KTVB-TV

BOISE — Idaho Congressman Raul Labrador got back Friday night from a trip to the Middle East, and he has questions about how your money is being spent in the area.
Labrador was a part of a bipartisan Congressional Delegation of six lawmakers who spent about a week in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. He was chosen partly because of his position on on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
“Just to see the conditions that are there. It was sobering,” said Labrador.
The United States is spending billions of dollars in the Middle East to fund the U.S. military, but also to fund contractors who are helping build infrastructure. The delegation Labrador was a part of, led by Representative Darrell Issa from California, wanted to make sure that money was being spent efficiently. Their initial findings were that not all of it is.
“There’s a lot of money being spent in Afghanistan right now,” Labrador said. “It’s $120 billion a year.”
The first two-day stop for Labrador’s delegation was Afghanistan. Like they did everywhere, Labrador had detailed conversations with the U.S. government’s inspector generals in charge of spending.
“We have to make sure that the money that is being spent, is being spent correctly,” Labrador said.

Labrador’s next visit was Pakistan. He said the U.S. is trying to build up the Pakistan military to handle issues in Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, but the anti-American sentiment and the social unrest in surrounding countries isn’t helping.
“The problem is, there’s a lot of distrust,” Labrador said. “The Pakistani people don’t like the American people. It’s pretty precarious right now. They’re trying to show that they’re independent from the United States, and they’re not accepting some of the help that we’re offering. It’s kind of a dance that we’re going through right now.”
The delegation’s final stop was in Iraq, where Labrador met with President Jalal Talabani. Soldiers also talked about the improving conditions.
“Iraq was the best part of the trip, for a lot of reasons,” said Labrador. “But the number one reason is that I was able to meet with members of the 116th Brigade. I was so heartened by the work that they were doing.”
Labrador said overall, he was very impressed with our fighting men and women. But he still had serious concerns about many agencies, and how money was being spent.
“We had too much money that was handed out to the locals without any reports coming back,” said Labrador. “When we were asking some of the agencies how much money had been spent, they knew how much money had been spent. But when you asked them, ‘What did you get from that money?’, many of them couldn’t tell you. We’re going to have some hearings on the way money is being spent, and we’re going to be subpoenaing quite a few people. Hopefully, we don’t have to subpoena anybody, hopefully they come willingly.”
Labrador said we’ll see the first hearings in the next few months.
Labrador was also scheduled to make a stop in Egypt, but that was canceled, because of the unrest there.