· Members of the Iraqi Governing Council told my staff that the costs to the American taxpayer of many re-construction projects could be reduced by 90% if the projects were awarded to local Iraqi companies rather than to large government contractors like Halliburton or Bechtel.

· The general in charge of northern Iraq, Major General David Petraeus, told a congressional delegation that included my staff that US engineers estimated that it would cost $15mn to bring a cement plant in northern Iraq back to Western production standards. Because this estimate far exceeded the funds available to Gen-eral Petraeus, he gave the project to local Iraqis, who were able to get the cement plant running again for just $80,000.

· A journalist for the Santa Monica Daily Press, a newspaper in my district, told my staff that she attended a meeting in Baghdad where a Bechtel executive interviewed Iraqi contractors seeking jobs rebuilding the Baghdad airport. The Bechtel executive informed the Iraqis that they could not participate in rebuilding their country's airport unless they got three different types of insurance: indemnification insurance, bid se-curities insurance, and performance insurance. When one Iraqi contractor asked how to obtain such insur-ance, which Iraqis never had to obtain before and which was not available in Iraq, he was told, "Don't worry, there will be American insurance companies coming in to sell you insurance."