[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 102 (Thursday, July 17, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H5408]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PORKER OF THE WEEK AWARD

  (Mr. HEFLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker, an investigation by the inspectors general 
of the Department of Health and Human Services found that a $15.3 
million training program based at the University of Mississippi, 
underwritten with Federal tax dollars, was only 8 percent effective. 
The goal of this program was to help participants earn the equivalent 
of a high school diploma, the GED.
  Yet, for all the money spent, just 720 of the 4,300 participants even 
took the GED exam. Of those, only about half passed and went on to 
receive the GED diploma. The final price tag, now get this, for each 
GED diploma was $40,584. That looks like the cost of a 4-year stay at a 
State-run college, rather than a remedial education effort.
  Why do we keep spending tax dollars on feel-good programs that are 
not working? It appears these folks could use a little education in the 
arithmetic category. They simply are not making the grade. The U.S. 
Department of Health and Human Services gets my Porker of the Week 
Award.

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