[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 58 (Thursday, May 12, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 12, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                              WASTED MONEY

  (Mr. ALLARD asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ALLARD. Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the issue of Social 
Security disability insurance and supplemental security income cash 
benefits going to addicts, and not for their treatment.
  I find it troubling that $1.4 billion is slipping through taxpayer 
pockets each year to prolong and support the drug addiction of these so 
called disabled.
  The director of a homeless shelter in Denver, CO stated that SSI is, 
in effect suicide on the installment plan because the program provides 
ready cash to addicts and alcoholics with no strings attached for 
follow-up or treatment. He maintains that the first day of every month 
is considered ``Christmas Day'' by many alcoholics and addicts who use 
the money for illegal drugs and alcohol and then fail to enter the 
required treatment programs.
  An individual in another town was indicted for allegedly defrauding 
the SSI program of $45,000 through faking mental illness to become 
eligible for the SSI payments.
  Why not send the $1.4 billion that is appropriated for this program 
to the actual treatment centers to assist them and not to some 
representative payee who may be the person's supplier? The treatment 
centers will be more cost effective and easier for the Social Security 
Administration to monitor. I even question why the country needs to 
qualify these citizens as disabled. This is the wrong path for America 
to take to cure its social ills.
  It is a failure of the Social Security Administration to monitor and 
enforce the requirements needed to prevent this corruption. I commend 
Senator William Cohen for his work in this matter and I hope my 
colleagues on the House Ways and Means Committee will be successful in 
putting an end to this disgrace.

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