Golden Fleece Award

WASHINGTON D.C. — Congressman French Hill (AR-02) named the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) as the latest recipient of the Golden Fleece Award for continued delays to completion of Silver Line Phase 2, resulting in millions of dollars in extra costs to taxpayers.

“The federal government must be better stewards of hardworking taxpayers’ dollars, and double spending because of mistakes simply is not acceptable," said Congressman Hill. "The costs are more than monetary because residents and visitors to Washington, D.C. from Arkansas and across the nation aren’t getting the services they have paid for.”

In a letter to the President and Chief Executive Officer of Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, John E. Potter, Congressman Hill wrote:


Dear Mr. Potter:

I write today to inform you that your agency is this month's recipient of my Golden Fleece Award. I am awarding this to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) for continued delays of Silver Line Phase 2.

According to reports by The Washington Post, Silver Line Phase 2 is more than a year behind schedule and has had numerous construction problems, including having to rebuild an entire platform that was built with the wrong dimensions, cracked panels at a rail yard that houses train cars, flaws in concrete rails ties that could cause tracks to tilt outward, and contractors utilizing cranes that do not meet "Buy America" requirements and will have to be replaced. The entire Silver Line project is expected to cost more than $5.6 billion, and we must be good stewards of our taxpayers' dollars.

Our nation is currently over $22 trillion in debt, and it is important now more than ever that we carefully scrutinize our government programs to ensure that we are only funding essential programs and projects while eliminating frivolous and wasteful spending - and ensuring we have in place necessary accountability mechanisms. MWAA has already received $900 million for Silver Line Phase 1 from the U.S. Department of Transportation, in addition to nearly $2 billion in federal loans for Silver Line Phase 2.

Should you require any additional authority from Congress to address these concerns, I urge you to notify us as soon as possible. I thank you for your consideration and look forward to working with you to address this important issue.

Sincerely,
French Hill
Member of Congress



About the Golden Fleece Award

Every year, Congress appropriates trillions of dollars to fund the federal government, and every year the federal government wastes portions of these funds in unconscionable ways. In an attempt to increase accountability for every single government program, Congressman Hill decided to bring back the Golden Fleece Award.

Originally introduced by Democratic U.S. Senator from Wisconsin William Proxmire in March 1975, the Golden Fleece Award was a monthly bulletin on the most frivolous and wasteful uses of hardworking taxpayers’ dollars. The Golden Fleece Award became a staple in the U.S. Senate during this time, and Senator Robert Byrd once stated that the awards were “as much a part of the Senate as quorum calls and filibusters.”

In reviving this idea, the Golden Fleece Award will again have the opportunity to serve as an important reminder to taxpayers about the need for necessary, commonsense reforms to our federal spending.