Date: 2003-10-20
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Speaker. I rise to join my colleagues. and in particular the gentleman from Florida . as a vigilante for the American taxpayer. In the 10 short months that I have been a Member of Congress. I have been appalled by the waste. fraud. and abuse that I have found to exist within the Federal Government. As a member of the Washington Waste Watchers and of this body. I believe it is my duty to bring to the publics attention instances of fraud. waste. and abuse. It not only steals from taxpayers but also from the beneficiaries who truly need the benefits. I have been given the honor of serving on the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. In this position. I exercise oversight responsibilities over the second largest agency in the Federal Government. The VA is a laudable institution with lofty goals and worthy intentions. However. as evidenced by long wait times suffered by many veterans. not only in my district but in other districts as well. it has not always flourished under the best management practices. Again this year. the GAO placed the VA on its highrisk list for fraud. waste. and abuse. Here are but a few examples of fraud and waste that I will discuss that happened in the VA where we stood to lose over $130 million to unscrupulous felons. They have been vulnerable to this because of poor management practices and loose accounting standards. Three VA employees. two in my home State of Florida and one in New York. embezzled nearly $1.3 million by exploiting internal weaknesses in the VA benefit program. With this money one employee purchased a Mazda Miata. a Mitsubishi 3000 GT. and two engagement rings. After a review was conducted as a result of this crime. auditors uncovered 136 other cases of potential fraud or mishandling of veterans benefit checks from offices in St. Pete. Florida. and St. Louis. Missouri. alone. We need to set k out this fraud. not Just believe that the solution is to raise taxes and turn our backs on fraud. waste. and abuse. The VA has also identified approximately 7.000 possible cases of individuals who may be receiving benefits intended for deceased veterans. The VA estimates that they netted nearly $21 million over 5 years by identifying these cases. Can you imagine that they are continuing to pay for veterans who have passed away? For more than 7 years. nearly 400 veterans actually received VA educational benefits even though they did not attend class. The veterans had a great scheme going with the instructor who falsified their attendance. Nineteen defendants have been convicted in this scheme. and the government has recouped over $4.5 million. Lastly. the Departments Inspector General estimated that roughly 13.700 veterans have been paid about a million dollars nationwide and that the Department has no systematic method to identify these people who are prisoners. Prisoners should notbe paid veterans benefits. Here are a few recent examples of waste within the VA: the Veterans Administration keeps an excess inventory of medical supplies totalling $64 million. or 62 percent of its $132 million inventory. An example is at four pharmaceutical facilities surveyed. the Inspector General found 48 percent of the inventory was actually in excess. The VA medical supply procurement practices are also questionable because very often they pay more for medical supplies than the market price. and here is an example of that. During a 6month period. seven out of 10 VA medical centers that purchased standard powderfree surgical gloves failed to use the established FFS contractor and overpaid an openmarket vendor by 28 percent. This error in disposable gloves alone cost the taxpayers $34.000. As evidenced by these instances of fraud and abuse which are only the tip of the iceberg within the VA and other Federal agencies. it is imperative that the culture in Washington change. Instead of the knee jerk reaction to raise taxes to fund programs or to create mandatory spending entitlements (the answer favored by Democrats) we must look into the wasteful spending practices the result from unchecked bureaucracyl It Is my deepest hope that by highlighting these abuses and bringing them to the attention of the American taxpayer. the VA will continue to take corrective action under the leadership of Sec. Principi and respect that the money that they are spending Is the peoples money. Not their own. Waste. fraud. and abuse throughout the federal government is decades old. and Republicans--led by Budget Chairman NUSSLE and Speaker HASTERTare working to eliminate the culture of waste that has existed in the federal government. As a Republican. I will work to reduce wasteful spending in the government and protect your tax dollars.