[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 102 (Wednesday, June 24, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H4600-H4601]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GOVERNMENT WASTE, FRAUD, AND ABUSE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from
Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) for 5 minutes.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, one of the things I hear from my
constituents so regularly is: What are you
[[Page H4601]]
doing about our Nation's debt? What are you doing about this out-of-
control budget?
From time to time, at our committee, we would hold hearings on an
inspector general report and actually look at some waste. This started
our office thinking and some of us on the Budget Committee thinking
about: How do you begin to quantify that and hold these agencies
accountable?
As one of my constituents said: You know, it seems that they are
always after one of us, a small-business owner, but they never go ask a
Federal bureaucrat or a Federal agency to pony up or to pay back money
or to be held accountable.
In our office, our interns this summer have worked with us on a
project to actually begin to quantify this waste and to look at these
inspector general reports.
Mr. Speaker, this is what we found. Just taking the reports from the
70 agencies that have inspector generals and looking at a 4-year period
of time, from 2011 to 2014, what we found is this: we could put our
finger on $105.7 billion of waste, and that is $105.7 billion of waste,
of taxpayer money that is being wasted. It has been identified by the
inspector general's office. That works out to about $1.5 billion for
each of these 70 agencies.
Now, what was of concern to us was the fact that many of these
agencies are doing nothing about it; and we found that, when you look
at the reports that have been issued, which total 81 different reports,
the reports for which a management decision was made during the
reporting period was only 30 of those reports.
Mr. Speaker, 30 times, management said that they are going to go in
and they are going to take an action in response to the recommendations
that the inspector general has found.
Now, one of the things that we looked at was where these wasteful
occurrences continue to happen and who are the repeat offenders when
you look at these IG reports.
Let me give you some examples, Mr. Speaker. Department of Defense,
$38.2 billion that has been identified--this is one of the reasons that
Republicans are pushing to audit the DOD and hold people accountable
for the wasteful spending.
Health and Human Services, $10.3 billion--we found that $2 billion
went toward the ObamaCare Web site, which still is barely working.
Department of Agriculture, $9.2 billion; Social Security
Administration, $9.1 billion; Department of Energy, $7.7 billion--and
by the way, Solyndra, a green energy firm, filed for bankruptcy in
September 2011, after they got 536 million taxpayer dollars. The list
goes on and on.
What we are going to do--and I commend Chairman Price for pushing
forward to hold some hearings with these inspector generals, with these
departments, to drill down on the total number of reports and to hold
them accountable for not taking an action and looking for ways that we,
as Members of Congress, can charge back these agencies for the
continued misuse--not occasional misuse, not one time misuse, but
continued misuse of taxpayer dollars.
When you look at the list of these agencies and what they have done,
year after year, there are some of these agencies that end up in the
top 10 offenders every year--2014, Department of Defense, HUD, Health
and Human Services, Department of Energy, Social Security, Department
of Agriculture, VA, Homeland Security, Department of Education,
Department of State, and the Agency for International Development.
You can look at 2013, continuing down the list, the top 10 again,
Defense, HUD, Energy, Health and Human Services, Railroad Retirement
Board, Homeland Security, Agriculture, Social Security Administration,
Department of Education, and Department of State--repeated waste,
fraud, and abuse of the taxpayer money.
When I came to Congress in January 2003, our freshman class decided
our project was going to be rooting out wasteful Washington spending.
We continue to be committed to that, and I submit our findings to the
body for their review and understanding.
Inspector General Reports--Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
2011-2014
Total waste (70 agencies) = $105.7 billion
Average waste of the 70 agencies = $1.5 billion
Waste by year:
Our findings
2011 = $20.1 billion
2012 = $19.5 billion
2013 = $40.9 billion
2014 = $25.2 billion
Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity & Efficiency
2011 = $17.2 billion
2012 = $12.8 billion
2013 = $35.1 billion
2014 = n/a
11 agencies accumulated over $1 billion in waste over the 4
years:
1. Dept. of Defense--$38.2 billion
2. Dept. of Health & Human Services--$10.3 billion
3. Dept. of Agriculture--$9.2 billion
4. Social Security Administration--$9.1 billion
5. HUD--$ 7.7 billion
6. Dept. of Energy--$7.7 billion
7. Dept. of Homeland Security--$5.9 billion
8. VA--$3.9 billion
9. Dept. of Education--$3.2 billion
10. Railroad Retirement Board--$2.5 billion
11. Dept. of State--$1.1 billion
Top 10 in 2014 Total Waste
1. Dept. of Defense--$10.4 billion
2. HUD--$2.9 billion
3. Dept. Health & Human Services--$2.7 billion
4. Dept. of Energy--$2.6 billion
S. Social Security Administration--$2.5 billion
6. Dept. of Agriculture--$992.7 million
7. VA--$957.1 million
8. Dept. of Homeland Security--$345.5 million
9. Dept. of Education--$273.4 million
10. Dept. of State--$264.8 million
11. Agency for International Development--$202.9 million
Top 10 in 2013 Total Waste
1. Dept. of Defense--$23.9 billion
2. HUD--$2.9 billion
3. Dept. of Energy--$2.6 billion
4. Dept. of Health and Human Services--$2.5 billion
5. Railroad Retirement Board--$2.2 billion
6. Dept. of Homeland Security--$1.6 billion
7. Dept. of Agriculture--$1.5 billion
8. Social Security Administration--$1.4 billion
9. Dept. of Education--$606.6 million
10. Dept. of State--$266.1 million
Top 10 in 2012 Total Waste
1. Social Security Administration--$3.4 billion
2. Dept. of Defense--$3.0 billion
3. Dept. of Homeland Security--$2.3 billion
4. Dept. of Health & Human Services--$2.3 billion
5. Dept. of Agriculture--$2.0 billion
6. HUD--$1.4 billion
7. Dept. of Energy--$1.2 billion
8. Dept. of Education--$999.4 million
9. Securities and Exchange Commission--$557.1 million
10. Treasury Inspector General on Tax Administration--
$404.2 million
Top 10 in 2011 Total Waste
1. Dept. of Agriculture--$4.7 billion
2. Dept. of Health & Human Services--$2.9 billion
3. VA--$2.8 billion
4. Social Security Administration--$1.8 billion
5. Dept. of Homeland Security--$1.6 billion
6. Dept. of Education--$1.3 billion
7. Dept. of Energy--$1.2 billion
8. Dept. of Defense--$979 million
9. Securities and Exchange Commission--$566.9 million
10. HUD--$395.9 million
Other agencies total waste 2011-2014 (no particular order).
. .
EPA--$404.7 million
FCC--$24.4 million
Dept. of Labor--$147.1 million
Dept. of Treasury--$38.9 million
Dept. of Commerce--$467.1 million
Dept. of Transportation--$478.4 million.
____________________