[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 25, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: January 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                      OUR NATION'S WELFARE SYSTEM

                                 ______


                            HON. RICK LAZIO

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 25, 1994

  Mr. LAZIO. Mr. Speaker, our Nation's welfare system was created with 
the noble intention of providing assistance to the truly needy. Yet, it 
is generally agreed that the system has gone sour, and is rife with 
fraud and abuse. There is a legitimate, and well substantiated, concern 
that through fraudulent manipulation of the system, many welfare 
recipients are receiving benefits to which they are not entitled. This 
year--or possibly next--Congress will, hopefully, consider legislation 
to overhaul this complex system which has become a financial albatross 
around the necks of American taxpayers. Even before that debate begins, 
we can act now to tighten-up existing welfare-fraud detection efforts.
  Today, I am introducing a bill calling upon the Secretary of Health 
and Human Services to conduct a feasibility study on the use of finger-
imaging, or other biometric technology such as retina scans, to verify 
identity in order to help reduce fraud in the welfare program. This 
study will examine the effectiveness and availability of fingerprinting 
technology, and allow us to examine how it may contribute to welfare 
reform with the goal of saving tax dollars.
  Programs such as this are not without precedence. Recently, my former 
colleagues in New York's Suffolk County legislature enacted a law 
requiring that recipients of public assistance be screened by a finger 
imaging identification system. Similar projects are being tested on a 
limited basis in two other New York counties. These programs have been 
running for 15 months and have saved the State nearly $700,000. 
According to published reports, a study conducted by the New York 
Department of Social Services found that the State could save $46 
million a year if it adopted a statewide finger-imaging program. During 
his State-of-the-State address, Gov. Mario Cuomo called for an 
expansion of New York's pilot fingerprinting programs.
  Los Angeles County has been running a similar experimental program 
since 1991. That project has saved $6 million during the first 6 months 
of its operation and is projected to save about $18 million over 5 
years. Soon after L.A. County implemented its program, 3,021 people 
refused to be fingerprinted and dropped out of the welfare system, 242 
people were denied benefits for submitting multiple applications, and 
126 people were caught in outright cheating. Since then, the program is 
reported to have been weeding out about 30 people a month who were 
trying to defraud the system.
  If the savings suggested by these pilot programs are even in the 
ballpark, then we should not waste any time in moving this idea forward 
as an important component of welfare reform.
  Reducing fraud in the welfare program will not only cut costs, it 
will ensure that welfare assistance goes to those people who honestly 
need help, not those who are cheating the system and the taxpayers.

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