Date: 2003-09-10
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Speaker. I am here as a member of the Washington waste watchers group. and I am here to focus on irresponsible spending on funds that miss the beneficiary and then go elsewhere. Todays Washington waste watch. Mr. Speaker. highlights the taxpayer dollars that are sent to people other than those who they are intended to go for. and those are dollars that are supposed to go for certain beneficiaries of certain programs. Americans should and would be shocked to know that their tax dollars are being sent to Washington. that they are funding benefits for dead people or prisoners and millions of people that simply lie on their applications in order to receive benefits that they do not qualify for. The Washington bureaucracy. for example. is throwing away benefits that taxpayers spend their hardearned money to fund and money that they send to D.C. Mr. Speaker. for example. 23 percent of all students whose loans were discharged due to disability claims are actually holding jobs. and many borrowers who receive death discharges are found to be clearly alive. Mr. Speaker. and in many cases. earning wages. 23 percent. Medicaid. for example. paid $1.6 million to a Wisconsin transportation company for multiple round trips to. among others. dead people that they clearly were not transporting. Mr. Speaker. there are some good things going on. though. The Veterans Affairs Inspector General is using computer technology to identify individuals who may be defrauding the VA by receiving benefits that. again. for people they are receiving benefits for people that have already died. More than 5.500 possible cases have been identified and they have actually recovered $4.7 million. but over the past 5 years. for example. law enforcement has arrested almost 7.000 fugitives who were illegally receiving food stamps. They included 1.500 accused drug offenders. Mr. Speaker. 31 murderers. 45 sex offenders and child molesters. hundreds wanted for assault and robbery. Mr. Speaker. more than 25 percent of free and reduced price school lunches are being consumed by children whose families income is way above what they should be to qualify for those programs. and then yet we do not have enough money. some people will say. for those that do qualify. The Veterans Affairs Inspector General estimated that roughly 13.700 incarcerated veterans have been paid about $100 million nationwide because the Department Just does not have a way to figure out who are the prisoners or not. These funds. Mr. Speaker. could have paid for 45.000 monthly compensation benefits for disabled veterans who do deserve it and who do need those benefits. Last year. Mr. Speaker. $366 million in Pell grant awards were improperly given out because applicants basically understated their income. These funds wasted on people that do not qualify could have paid for over 84.000 Pell grants for people that do deserve those benefits. Mr. Speaker. President Bush is committed to eliminating these improper payments that plague these very important government programs. In fact. the Presidents management agenda has identified improper payments as one of the main elements within the administrations initiative to improve financial management. Finally. Mr. Speaker. the American people should not be fooled. and they are not fooled. when millions of dollars are being spent on benefits for dead people. millions of dollars going to people in prisons that clearly do riot qualify. millions going to people that lie on their applications. And despite all this. Mr. Speaker. the Democrats still want to raise the hardworking American taxpayers taxes.