Subcommittee on Government Operations Ranking Member Jody Hice (R-Ga.) opened today’s hearing on “Follow the Money: Tackling Improper Payments” by emphasizing how improper payments plague government assistance programs and how the trillions of dollars in pandemic relief pushed by Congressional Democrats have ushered in a new wave of fraud unlike anything Americans have ever experienced. He highlighted how the Democrats’ plan to fight improper payments has been inadequate and stated the importance of hearing directly from Biden Administration officials on their plans to address this ongoing abuse of taxpayer funds. Hice concluded that Americans expect Congress and the Administration to provide answers and action to improve the government’s fraud prevention efforts.
Below are Subcommittee Ranking Member Hice’s remarks as prepared for delivery.
Thank you, Chairman Connolly, for calling this long overdue hearing.
Republicans are often skeptical government programs will work.
My Democratic colleagues hold a different view.
But we know with certainty government assistance will be ineffective if funds never even reach the intended recipients.
Improper payments have been a thorn in the side of government – probably forever.
The problem was getting worse even before COVID, but the trillions in pandemic assistance ushered in a wave of fraud unlike anything we have ever experienced.
Estimates range into the hundreds of billions of dollars.
Hundreds of billions of dollars lost to organized crime.
Lost to Nigeria, China…Russia.
For all we know, American tax dollars are funding Putin’s war against Ukraine.
Reports began to surface last year regarding the magnitude of the problem, yet here we are, over a year since the American Rescue Plan – another $2 trillion dollar bill – was signed into law.
And this is the first hearing we have had on the subject.
If the state and local funding in the American Rescue Plan is any guide, the Democrat plan to fight fraud is to let people spend it on whatever they want.
No rules – No fraud.
Earlier this month, the White House put out a “fact sheet” on what they had done – or were going to do around fraud and improper payments.
Great.
It talks about how last May they got a bunch of people together – the ARP coordinator, the PRAC, IGs, GAO, NSC – to take government-wide steps to prevent individuals from defrauding public benefits programs.
Well…what have they done?
With all due respect to today’s witnesses, we should be hearing directly from the Biden Administration today.
And there’s this: they have “Re-established Respect for and Transparency with Oversight Community,” the result of which is to have a bunch more meetings.
Give me a break.
We have no idea what is being done at anything more than the talking-point level to address what should be a top priority – an emergency – for this Administration.
Appointing special prosecutors is fine.
And Democrats will talk about how they have appropriated more money for inspectors general.
But that is just slamming the barn door after the horse is out.
That money is gone.
You might get a little back, but that money – for all intents and purposes – is gone.
There may have been funding for fraud prevention in the American Rescue Plan and the omnibus – but how was it used? How will it be used?
This is basic oversight.
And again, I would like to thank Chairman Connolly, for at least pulling together a conversation on the general subject.
I am sure you are under constraints as who you can call as witnesses.
One thing we will hear today is the tension between fraud prevention and getting money to recipients as easily and quickly as possible.
During the initial stages of the pandemic, when unprecedented action was needed to keep the economy afloat, it is understandable we would have erred on the side of getting the aid out.
But as we will hear today, it does not have to be an either/or choice.
There are actions states could have taken but didn’t.
Why not?
If we are talking about federal dollars, how much do states even care about program integrity, especially if nobody is holding them accountable?
There were things federal agencies could have done but didn’t.
Why not?
Was it a question of focus? Resources? Leadership?
Congress first attempted to address improper payments 20 years ago, but the solutions aren’t working.
The pandemic laid bare the sorry state of fraud prevention and program integrity at all levels of government.
This is true for Democratic administrations; it is true for Republican administrations.
Something has to change.
Since I came to Congress, I have been amazed how a simple recitation of the problem is construed as insight.
Agencies don’t share data.
Agencies don’t have access to data.
You can’t do things across the whole of government.
There aren’t incentives.
And on and on.
It’s just admitting defeat.
We literally swung the door of the treasury wide open and invited our enemies to come on in and help themselves.
If we aren’t motivated to fix the problems now, we never will be.
This isn’t something to slip in half-way through the State of the Union –
This is a disgrace and an emergency.
We do hearings twice a year on FITARA – THIS is an issue to highlight twice a year.
Chairman Connolly, we have got to do something about this.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses, but I really look forward to DEMANDING answers from the Administration and DEMANDING action.
Original source can be found here.
