[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 111 (Tuesday, July 30, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H5100]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
OBAMACARE FRAUD INVESTIGATIONS
(Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, many of us were surprised on July 2 when
the administration unilaterally suspended the employer mandate in the
Affordable Care Act. Since there were going to be no reporting
requirements under the employer mandate, how were people going to be
judged as eligible for benefits under the Affordable Care Act? Well, we
would simply take their word for it. ``Self-attestation'' became the
watchword and buzzword in the administration.
Last Thursday, again, people were surprised that the Department of
Health and Human Services' Inspector General's Office is going to lose
20 percent of its staff between now and 2015.
Well, wait a minute. We are going to a system of self-reporting,
self-attestation, but we are cutting the staff of the office who is
going to see that the funds are properly spent. Oh, by the way, all the
while, we are going to be increasing the funding for the so-called
navigators, people who are going to sign people up for the Affordable
Care Act under their own self-attestation.
It seems like we are going in the wrong direction here. We do need to
keep an eye on these funds. They could go out the door inappropriately.
We owe it to the taxpayer to be more vigilant.
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