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“GO AFTER THE CROOKS AND CHISELERS WHO ARE DEFRAUDING THE FEDERAL FOOD STAMP PROGRAM” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E383-E384 on Feb. 16, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
GO AFTER THE CROOKS AND CHISELERS WHO ARE DEFRAUDING THE FEDERAL FOOD
STAMP PROGRAM; SUPPORT THE FOOD STAMP TRAFFICKING AND PENALTY ACT OF
1995
______
HON. RON WYDEN
of oregon
in the house of representatives
Thursday, February 16, 1995
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. Speaker, today I introduce the Food Stamp Trafficking and Prevention Act of 1995, a measure which will step up the penalties levied on criminals intent on tearing large holes in this Nation's most valuable social safety net.
Each year, waste, fraud and abuse in the Food Stamp Program costs taxpayers as much as $2 billion. Laundering for cash, or exchanging food stamps for contraband items such as guns or drugs, accounts for hundreds of millions of dollars of that total. Occasionally, this activity occurs through retailers who have been initially certified as bona fide grocery stores, but which are, in effect, no more than fronts for the processing of illegal stamp transactions.
This activity not only denies fundamental nutrition to some of our Nation's most vulnerable citizens. It also destroys public confidence crucial to the continuation of a very valuable program.
I have long been a critic of our Government's lackluster efforts to investigate food stamp fraud, and bring to justice persons who are ripping off the system. Our investigative strength at the Food and Consumer Services Division, for example, is about half of what it was a dozen years ago--despite steady growth in food stamp use and fraud. These personnel cuts make no sense. We need more cops on the beat. Improvements in anti-fraud technology such as the electronic benefits transfer program will not produce maximum results until we have more people to make cases and bring the crooks to trial.
I have recently pressed my case on this subject with White House domestic advisors. I am hopeful that the administration's welfare reform efforts will improve our capacity to police fraud in this important program. I believe my position has strong, bi-partisan support in this House.
Beyond increasing our investigative effort, we must also look to establishing real penalties that will cause real pain for the chiselers who are, quite literally, taking food from the mouths of this Nation's poverty-stricken elderly, working poor and defenseless, destitute children.
The Food Stamp Trafficking Prevention and Penalty Act has three important elements.
First, we will strengthen current forfeiture provisions to allow the Government to take all assets resulting from, or involved in the commission of food stamp trafficking. I have devised this language in close cooperation with
[[Page E384]] the inspector general of the Department of Agriculture. We are both convinced that this toughened penalty is absolutely necessary to discourage trafficking, and close down what amounts to a nearly no-fault avenue to criminal success now present in the system.
Second, we allow the Secretary of Agriculture to require that owners of food stores certified to exchange food stamps submit a valid business license. The intent of this section is to verify that persons in the food stamp networks are actual retailers, and not criminal fronts set-up primarily to illegally launder the stamps.
Third, the bill requires periodic reporting by certified stores to ensure that they are indeed in a bona fide business, and are not merely fronts for laundering. This can be accomplished in a user-friendly way by requesting copies of Federal tax forms which delineate volume and scope of business activity.
Again, the inspector general has argued that this verification procedure is crucial to the program's sound and honest functioning, and I believe my bill creates a system that will be relatively easy and inexpensive for retailers certified for food stamp business.
Mr. Speaker, as Congress moves forward with the welfare reform debate, the holes in system integrity must be closed. Effective welfare reform must be built on a strong foundation in order to guarantee taxpayer support and ensure that resources go not to the crooks but to the people who are most in need.
____________________
SOURCE: SUPPORT THE FOOD STAMP TRAFFICKING AND PENALTY ACT OF 1995
