Rep. John Tierney Pushes For Contractor Oversight

The U.S. has spend more than $200 billion on private contractors in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Of that, between $30 to $60 billion have been lost to waste or fraud, according to a special congressional panel's report released Wednesday.

Dov Zakheim, a member of the eight-person Commission on Wartime Contracting said that he believes the amount of wasted tax payer dollars is much closer to $60 billion.

"$206 billion is a lot of money on contracting but so is $60 billion in waste, of which a considerable amount, maybe as much as $18 billion, is pure fraud," Zakheim said.

Rep. John Tierney announced legislation to create a permanent inspector general for contingency operations in response to the Commission's findings. As ranking Democrat on the National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations Oversight Subcommitte, Tierney was one of the leaders who pushed for the establishment of the commission in 2008.

He joins us to share his reactions to the commission's findings.

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