[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 207 (Wednesday, December 1, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H6726]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           AMERICORPS FUNDING

  (Mr. GROTHMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, we could talk forever about this Build 
Back Better bill, but I am going to shine a light on an underpublicized 
provision in there.
  I believe in the last month, for the first time, we hit $29 trillion 
in debt. So one would figure on any spending bill that goes through 
this House, we should be really conservative when it comes to spending 
more money.
  AmeriCorps is a program that right now we spend about $1 billion a 
year on. In this bill, we are going from $1 billion a year to $4 
billion a year. We are quadrupling the amount of money spent on a 
program that is fraught with fraud, people taking large amounts of 
money out of the program. Also, people are falsifying timesheets to get 
benefits they aren't entitled to. Meanwhile, the inspector general 
cannot do an appropriate job of investigating fraud because they aren't 
even turning over records from the past.
  If there is one program that ought to be looked at carefully, it 
would be this. Instead of paying more attention to fraud in the 
program, we are quadrupling the size of the program, not to mention it 
is hurting people.

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