[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 98 (Wednesday, June 10, 2026)]
[House]
[Pages H4071-H4075]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STOPPING FRAUDULENT PAYMENTS ACT
Mr. COMER. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1345, I call
up the bill (H.R. 8464) to amend title 31, United States Code, to
authorize pausing and segmenting payments, and for other purposes, and
ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 1345, the
amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform, printed in the bill, is adopted, and
the bill, as amended, is considered read.
The text of the bill, as amended, is as follows:
H.R. 8464
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Stopping Fraudulent Payments
Act''.
SEC. 2. AUTHORITY TO PAUSE PAYMENTS FOR FURTHER REVIEW AND
CORRECTIVE ACTION.
(a) Treasury Payment Voucher Waiver Authority.--
(1) Amendment.--Subchapter II of chapter 33 of title 31,
United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the
following:
``Sec. 3337. Authority to pause payments for further review
and corrective action
``(a) Agency Obligation to Pause Disbursement Requests for
Corrective Action.--The head of an agency shall take a
corrective action to temporarily delay, condition, or segment
a disbursement request before the certification of a payment
voucher under section 3325 if, as determined by an official
designated by the head of the agency, the agency--
``(1) has sufficient reason to determine that the payment
presents an elevated risk of fraud based on a fraud-risk
indicator or an improper payment resulting in financial loss
to the Government as estimated under the requirements of
section 3352 in accordance with the statutorily-defined
eligibility requirements or other legally-established
condition of the program for a payee to be eligible to
receive payment;
``(2) has sufficient reason to determine, based on a
notification by the relevant State or local government
official in the case of a payment from Federal funds
disbursed by a State or local government under a State-
administered and federally-funded program, that the payment
presents an elevated risk of fraud based on a fraud-risk
indicator or an improper payment resulting in financial loss
to the Government as estimated under the requirements of
section 3352 in accordance with the statutorily-defined
eligibility requirements or other legally-established
condition of the program for a payee to be eligible to
receive payment; or
``(3) has been notified of an order from the Secretary of
the Treasury described under subsection (b).
``(b) Treasury Obligation to Return Payment Voucher and
Issue Corrective Action Order.--Except where otherwise
required by
[[Page H4072]]
law, the Secretary shall promptly notify the relevant
certifying official of an order to return a certified payment
voucher submitted to a disbursing official under section 3325
and issue a corrective action order to the head of an agency
not later than 2 days after the Secretary makes a
determination that in accordance with the statutorily-defined
eligibility requirements or other legally-established
condition of the program for a payee to be eligible to
receive payment that such payment presents an elevated risk
of fraud based on a fraud-risk indicator or an improper
payment resulting in financial loss to the Government based
on an output of the Do Not Pay system under section 3354.
``(c) Agency Documentation and Time-limited Corrective
Action.--An action taken by the head of an agency under
subsection (a) shall--
``(1) be based on an objective, documented fraud-risk
indicator;
``(2) be narrowly applied to the portion of the payment
presenting the elevated risk; and
``(3) be limited in duration to the minimum period
necessary, as determined by the head of the agency, to verify
eligibility of the payee or accuracy of the payment per any
program requirement associated with the payment or as
stipulated under law.
``(d) Payee Notification and Time Limit of Paused
Disbursement Requests.--With respect to a disbursement
request that has been delayed, conditioned, or segmented
pursuant to subsection (a) or a payment voucher that is
returned pursuant subsection (b), the head of the agency
shall take the following actions:
``(1) Promptly provide to the payee (not later than 2 days
after a determination under subsection (a) or a notification
to the agency under subsection (b)), as appropriate, and for
a case in which the payment from Federal funds disbursed by a
State or local government under a State-administered and
federally-funded program also provides to such relevant State
or local government official, a notification that--
``(A) a disbursement has been temporarily paused,
conditioned, or segmented;
``(B) identifies the nature of the fraud-risk indicator or
improper payment relied upon by the agency to make the
corrective action determination under subsection (a) or
notification to the agency under subsection (b); and
``(C) outlines the process for the corrective action review
period.
``(2) Use a process tailored to the specific requirements
and design of the agency program for a payee, or the State or
local government described under paragraph (1), to contest
any factual inaccuracy or provide clarifying information
during the corrective action review period.
``(3) Issue such payment not later than 30 days after a
determination to take a corrective action is made by the head
of the agency under subsection (a) or the agency was notified
by the Secretary under subsection (b) of a corrective action
order, but not later than 7 days after the date on which the
payee contests the corrective action under the process
established pursuant to paragraph (2), if the head of the
agency determines that the payment does not present an
elevated risk of fraud or an improper payment resulting in
financial loss to the Government.
``(e) Segmentation of Low-risk Payments.--To the maximum
extent practicable, the head of each agency shall allow a
routine, historically consistent payment amount to proceed
while temporarily holding an anomalous, unusually large, or
high-risk portion of a payment, or class of payments, pending
review and resolution of an agency corrective action
determination under subsection (a) or a corrective action
order under subsection (b).
``(f) Exemptions for Law Enforcement Activities.--The head
of an agency, in consultation with the Secretary and the
Attorney General, may waive any provision in this section on
a case-by-case basis if notified of or instructed by a
Federal law enforcement authority, including an agency
Inspector General, that the action will jeopardize an active
criminal investigation or legal proceeding related to an
effort to defraud the Federal Government or violate sections
3729 through 3733 of title 31 (commonly known as the `False
Claims Act').
``(g) Limitation of Liability.--No officer or employee of
the Federal Government shall be personally liable for an
action taken in good faith under this section. An action
taken under this section may not constitute a final
determination of eligibility, liability, or wrongdoing on the
part of a payee.
``(h) Rule of Construction for Program Authorizing
Statute.--Nothing in this section may be construed to
supersede any other provision of law with respect to any
statute that authorizes the payment or program the payment is
made under.
``(i) Regulations.--Not later than 180 days after the date
of the enactment of this section, and annually thereafter,
the Secretary, in consultation with the Director, shall issue
regulations and establish procedures to administer the
requirements of this section that shall be published in the
Federal Register that, at a minimum, specify the following:
``(1) The minimum seniority of an agency official
designated under subsection (a) authorized to make a
determination to issue a corrective action.
``(2) The procedures by which the Secretary of the Treasury
will use the Do Not Pay system under section 3354 to make a
determination under subsection (b) in accordance with the
statutorily-defined eligibility requirements or other
legally-established condition of a program for a payee to be
eligible to receive payment.
``(3) The procedure for an agency to dispute an order to
return a certified payment voucher and appeal a related
corrective action order under subsection (b) to the Fiscal
Assistant Secretary, which shall at a minimum include a
requirement for the agency to receive a response not later
than five days after making such a dispute or appeal to the
Department of the Treasury.
``(4) The minimum information requirements of a
notification required under subsection (d)(1).
``(j) Definitions.--In this section:
``(1) Director.--The term `Director' means the Director of
the Office of Management and Budget.
``(2) Fraud-risk indicator.--The term `fraud-risk
indicator' means an objective data point or analytic signal
that indicates an anomalous payment pattern or increase in
the volume of a payment amount, a verified data mismatch,
network or behavioral anomaly, or match identified by the Do
Not Pay system under section 3354 and any payment, account,
or payee validation program or service administered by the
Secretary that would result in financial loss to the
Government.
``(3) Routine, historically consistent payment amount.--The
term `routine, historically consistent payment amount' means
a payment amount that is consistent with previous payment
history of the payee, established program use patterns, or
other objective benchmarks determined by the certifying
agency.
``(4) Secretary.--The term `Secretary' means the Secretary
of the Treasury.''.
(2) Technical and conforming amendment.--The table of
sections for chapter 33 of title 31, United States Codes, is
amended by inserting after the item for section 3336 the
following:
``3337. Authority to pause payments for further review and corrective
action.''.
(b) Requirements and Authorities of Payment Disbursing
Officials.--Paragraph (3) of section 3325(a) of title 31,
United States Code, is amended--
(1) by inserting ``, compliance with an order to pause a
payment pursuant to section 3337(b),'' after ``except for the
correctness of computations on a voucher''; and
(2) by striking ``,,'' and inserting a comma.
(c) Relief of Accountable Officers.--Section 3527 of title
31, United States Code, is amended--
(1) in subsection (a)(2), by inserting after ``the loss or
deficiency was not the result of an illegal or incorrect
payment'' the following: ``, or was made as a result of a
good faith effort to comply with the requirements of section
3337''; and
(2) in subsection (b)(1)(A)(ii), by inserting after ``the
loss or deficiency was not the result of an illegal or
incorrect payment'' the following: ``, or was made as a
result of a good faith effort to comply with the requirements
of section 3337''.
(d) Requirements and Authorities of Payment Certifying
Officials.--Subsection (a) of section 3528 of title 31,
United States Code, is amended--
(1) in paragraph (4)(C), by striking ``; and'' and
inserting a semicolon;
(2) in paragraph (5), by striking the period at the end and
inserting ``; and''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following
``(6) complying with an order to take a corrective action
to temporarily delay, condition, or segment a disbursement
request pursuant to section 3337.''.
(e) Relief of Certifying Officials.--Subsection (b)(1) of
section 3528 of title 31, United States Code--
(1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``; or'' and inserting
a semicolon;
(2) in subparagraph (B)(iii), by striking the period at the
end and inserting ``; or''; and
(3) by inserting at the end the following new subparagraph:
``(C) the certification was made as a result of a good
faith effort to comply with the requirements of section
3337.''.
(f) Report on Results of Payments Paused for Further Review
and Corrective Action.--Not later than 18 months after the
date of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter,
the Secretary of the Treasury shall submit to the Director of
the Office of Management and Budget, the Committees on
Appropriations of the Senate and the House of
Representatives, the Committee on Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs of the Senate, and the Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform of the House of
Representatives, a report on the following:
(1) The total number of orders to return a certified
payment voucher submitted to a disbursing official under
section 3325 of title 31, United States Code, and corrective
action orders issued to the head of an agency under the
authorities provided by section 3337(b) of such title, as
added by this section.
(2) The percentage of such payments that are issued by the
agency, including by successful contestations filed by the
recipient or payee with the agency, and recommendations to
mitigate such errors in the fraud-risk indicators of the
Department of the Treasury in the future.
(3) The total savings to the Federal Government in payments
determined to be fraudulent or result in financial loss to
the Government under the authorities provided by subsections
(a) and (b) of section 3337 of title 31, United States Code,
as added by this section.
(4) Any necessary policy, regulatory, or legislative
recommendations related to the authorities and requirements
under section of section 3337 of title 31, United States
Code, as added by this section, or other relevant law.
(g) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section
shall take effect 1 year after the date of the enactment of
this Act.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The bill, as amended, shall be debated for 1
hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority
member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform or their
respective designees.
[[Page H4073]]
The gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Comer) and the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Walkinshaw) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Comer).
General Leave
Mr. COMER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on the measure under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Kentucky?
There was no objection.
Mr. COMER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, we are facing a national emergency of fraud in Federal
programs that is impacting every American.
According to the Government Accountability Office, the Federal
Government is estimated to lose between $233 billion and $521 billion
annually to fraud across all Federal programs and operations.
Earlier this week, we exposed how criminals stole $9 billion in
Minnesota's social services programs while senior State officials,
including Governor Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison, did
absolutely nothing to stop it.
{time} 1240
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Whether in Minnesota,
California's hospice system, or Medicaid waiver programs in Ohio or New
York, one thing is clear: Fraudsters will keep stealing taxpayer
dollars until they are stopped.
Taxpayers bear the burden, while vulnerable Americans, the very
people these programs are meant to help, are harmed.
The Trump administration has taken decisive action to combat waste,
fraud, and abuse by establishing the White House Task Force to
eliminate fraud.
Just this week, Vice President Vance referred our findings on
Minnesota's rampant fraud to the Department of Justice for
investigation.
Congress must take further action to stop fraud before it happens.
The Stopping Fraudulent Payments Act adds critical safeguards to
ensure Federal payments go to the right recipient in the right amount
before funds are awarded or disbursed.
Federal law currently lacks a governmentwide requirement to verify
payments and prevent fraud across Federal financial assistance and
public benefit programs.
Even when payments show elevated fraud risks, the Treasury Department
cannot stop it. It is required to process the payments agencies
request.
Under current law, agencies can issue payments despite flags received
from Treasury's Do Not Pay system or other tools that might indicate an
elevated risk of fraud.
H.R. 8464 addresses the status quo by requiring agencies to conduct
fraud prevention activities prior to issuing payment requests. The bill
gives Treasury the authority to halt and return payments flagged for
fraud risk so agencies can review and correct them before issued.
Agencies would be required to quickly review and resolve payments
flagged for elevated risk of fraud unless otherwise mandated by law.
This provides additional assurance to the American taxpayer that
money is being paid to the right recipient and for the right amount
while preserving the ownership of a program's administration within the
appropriate Federal agency as authorized by law.
This bill also helps agencies and the American public understand when
a legitimate recipient's identity is being stolen and used for
fraudulent activities by criminals.
Lastly, to help Congress oversee progress made in addressing payments
with elevated fraud risk, Treasury will summarize the number of
returned payments, corrective outcome, and associated cost savings
achieved under the requirements of this bill. This ensures Congress has
regular oversight of these reforms.
The commonsense reforms outlined in this bill will protect taxpayer
dollars from being stolen by fraudsters while maintaining the integrity
of Federal programs.
Madam Speaker, I call on each of my House colleagues to support H.R.
8464 to protect taxpayer dollars from falling into the hands of
criminals and fraudsters.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 5 minutes.
Madam Speaker, fighting and preventing fraud should be a bipartisan
issue, and preventing the misuse of government funds should be a
priority shared by Democrats and Republicans alike.
When fraudsters successfully target government dollars, they steal
from taxpayers, deprive our most vulnerable neighbors of lifesaving
services, and undermine the public's trust in government.
We know that it is difficult to fight fraud and certainly difficult,
if not impossible, to claw back payments after they have been delivered
to a fraudster. There is no doubt the Federal Government must do more
to address this problem.
That is why Oversight Committee Democrats have supported numerous
antifraud measures, including the Pre-Payment Fraud Prevention and
Treasury Data Access Act, which seeks to add additional payment
verification before checks are sent out the door.
Oversight Committee Democrats and our Democratic colleagues across
the House will continue to fight waste, fraud, and abuse in the Federal
Government. However, the bill before us is flawed and does not
constitute a good-faith effort to detect and prevent fraud.
H.R. 8464, the Stopping Fraudulent Payments Act, would give the Trump
administration a blank check to cut off entitlements and grants to any
entity or individual it disfavors with few guardrails. It would allow
the Treasury Department to significantly delay funding if it decides
there is sufficient reason that a payment carries an elevated risk of
fraud.
This very broad, loosely defined authority could easily be used to
target funding to State and local governments, university research
grants, transportation funding, Pell grants, NIH grants, and even FEMA
assistance.
Due to this administration's policies and this Congress' policies,
Americans are struggling to put food on the table, gas in the tank, and
to access the healthcare they need. For millions of families, Federal
assistance, healthcare, food assistance, and Social Security is the
only thing standing between them and financial ruin.
This bill threatens to pull that lifeline away by burying legitimate
payments in vague criteria, red tape, and bureaucratic delays.
While we are all serious about stopping fraud, I hope, we can't turn
a blind eye to the political interference and weaponization carried out
by this administration.
Just last month, it suspended $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments to
California, which will harm nearly a million elderly and disabled
residents.
Last December, it threatened to withhold SNAP benefits from Colorado
and Minnesota.
In January, the Department of Health and Human Services froze $10
billion in funding for essential needs across five States led by
Democratic Governors. Meanwhile, not one State led by Republicans has
been targeted.
The bill's stated intent is to stop improper payments, which we all
agree is important. That is why House Democrats supported the Pre-
Payment Fraud Prevention and Treasury Data Access Act earlier this
week, a bipartisan bill to ensure we check the Do Not Pay list and
catch improper payments before they go out the door.
However, the bill we are considering here includes none of those
safeguards and will endanger millions of Americans who rely on critical
programs for healthcare, food, and rent.
The American people want programs that work, not unnecessary red
tape, delayed payments, and more dysfunction.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. COMER. Madam Speaker, let me translate that 5 minutes of
gibberish from my colleague.
They don't care about fraud. When you do find fraud, like we found in
Minnesota and California, they don't want to cut off the money. They
want the money to keep going so the fraudsters can stay in business.
That is why we have to support this bill.
[[Page H4074]]
Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Colorado
(Ms. Boebert).
Ms. BOEBERT. Madam Speaker, I strongly support H.R. 8464, the
Stopping Fraudulent Payments Act.
This legislation is a commonsense, taxpayer-first bill that finally
puts an end to the reckless pay-and-chase scam that has drained
billions from hardworking American families.
For too long, the Washington bureaucracy has operated like an open
checkbook for fraudsters. They cut the checks first, ask the questions
later while American taxpayers foot the bill for waste, abuse, and
outright theft.
We have seen it in State administered social services where millions
vanished into pockets of criminals. Enough is enough.
H.R. 8464 empowers Federal agencies and the Department of the
Treasury to pause, condition, or segment suspicious payments before the
money flies out the door. It uses objective fraud risk indicators from
the Do Not Pay system and requires any action to be narrow, temporary,
and focused solely on verifying eligibility. No more blank checks and
no more playing defense after fraud has already happened.
I believe in fiscal responsibility, government accountability, and
protecting every hard-earned dollar from the American people. This bill
delivers exactly that.
It shifts the focus from recovery to prevention, saving billions and
ensuring benefits go to eligible Americans, not scammers and fraud
rings.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to stand with taxpayers, stand
against waste and fraud, and vote ``yes'' on H.R. 8464.
{time} 1250
Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman
from Missouri (Mr. Bell).
Mr. BELL. Madam Speaker, no one in this Chamber disputes that
improper and fraudulent payments are a serious problem. The question
before us is not whether to fight fraud; it is how we fight fraud.
If this bill actually does that--and I will give you a hint: It does
not. The Stopping Fraudulent Payments Act allows agency officials to
block payments whenever they have sufficient reason to believe there is
an elevated risk of fraud.
This bill sets the standard so low that any administration can use it
to cut off legitimate recipients before a single fact is even proven.
As a former prosecutor and public defender in St. Louis, I know
firsthand what fraud accountability looks like. It starts with
evidence, not suspicion.
This bill would allow any administration to stop payments for
programs it opposes or in States it disfavors, using fraud as a
pretext, allowing Trump to target States that disagree with him.
The people who would bear the brunt of payment pauses are the ones
who cannot absorb it. These are patients on Medicaid, our seniors on
Social Security, working families relying on SNAP, some of the most
marginalized of our American brothers and sisters.
We can fight fraud without handing this administration a blank check
to weaponize Federal payments.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill.
Mr. COMER. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes.
Madam Speaker, I want to address the gentleman from Kentucky who
described my statement as gibberish. Perhaps to him the details of the
programs and the legislation are gibberish, but it is not to me.
I wonder if the gentleman knows how often the Do Not Pay list
produces a false positive--in other words, how often the Do Not Pay
list says someone shouldn't get paid when actually they are perfectly
legitimate.
Madam Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr.
Comer).
Mr. COMER. Madam Speaker, I know only 4 percent of government
agencies are utilizing the Do Not Pay list, which--
Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, I am reclaiming my time.
Madam Speaker, I will just give one agency, Social Security, an
agency that has been under assault by this administration. It is
estimated that 10,000 times a year, Social Security falsely declares
somebody dead.
Imagine that. You wake up one morning, and your own government says
you are dead. It happens oftentimes because States send bad information
to the Social Security Administration.
Time after time after time, the IG has recommended that Social
Security and this body make improvements in that process. They have
requested additional funding, which this majority has denied, that
would improve that process and prevent some of those false positives.
This bill would make a terrible situation for someone falsely
declared by their government to be dead even worse, because if the
government says you are dead, you don't get your Social Security
checks.
This bill would make an already impossible process, where someone has
to go call Social Security, get into an office, and try to get an
appointment with an agency that has been decimated by DOGE--I know that
my constituents tell me every day that they call Social Security
offices and can't get anyone to answer the phone because folks have
been fired and pushed out.
This bill would further delay at least 10,000 Americans falsely
declared dead each year from getting their Social Security checks. That
is just one of the problems.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, I yield myself an additional 1 minute.
Madam Speaker, the IRS, 52 percent of the time when they say a return
is fraudulent, they get it wrong. There are a lot of false positives on
the Do Not Pay list.
This bill does nothing to address that situation, to ensure the Do
Not Pay list is actually getting the fraudsters, not the law-abiding
Americans who deserve their Social Security checks. It would make it a
lot harder for all of our constituents to get the money they deserve
when the government makes a mistake.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. COMER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, the gentleman eloquently described the Democrat-in-
Washington solution to every problem. Whether it is fraud prevention or
whatever, it is to hire more government employees and create a bigger
government bureaucracy.
This bill that we are debating today keeps the decision of whether or
not to hold a payment with the agency. The agency ultimately interprets
the results of Do Not Pay.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman
from Kentucky (Mr. McGarvey).
Mr. McGARVEY. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 8464.
This bill lets the President take away money from anything or anyone
he doesn't like, as long as he thinks it is merely at risk for fraud.
We have seen what he thinks is fraud.
Last year, Donald Trump froze $9 million intended for Serve Kentucky.
Congress set aside that money for housing, hunger relief, education,
and disaster relief in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The White House
called that money waste and fraud. I have seen Serve Kentucky's work
firsthand. President Trump might not like a program that brings food to
seniors or new books to kids, but that doesn't make it fraud.
We know this President uses his power to punish those he does not
like. He has done it before. He will do it again.
I agree with my Republican colleagues: No one wants waste or fraud
from our taxpayer dollars. Congress must take a hard look at waste and
fraud in our government.
Let's start with Donald Trump's ballroom. The President destroyed the
White House and then said: Let me build a gaudy, billion-dollar
ballroom that looks like it should hold slot machines, not State
dinners.
He has been soliciting donations left and right from billionaires,
tech and tobacco companies, defense contractors, and dozens more
individuals and companies that do business with and profit from the
Federal Government and your tax dollars.
[[Page H4075]]
The American people, all of us, deserve to know who and how much they
are paying for access to President Trump.
For this reason, at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to
recommit this bill back to committee. If the House rules permitted, I
would have offered the motion with an important amendment to this bill.
My amendment would prevent this bill from taking effect until the
White House provides a list of every person who has donated to the
White House ballroom.
Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of this
amendment into the Record immediately prior to the vote on the motion
to recommit.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Kentucky?
There was no objection.
Mr. McGARVEY. Madam Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in
voting for the motion to recommit.
Mr. COMER. Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers. I am prepared
to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, as I have said today, preventing fraud
should be a priority for all of us, but this bill gives the Department
of the Treasury far too much arbitrary authority to prevent critical
Federal assistance from reaching Americans in need in a timely manner.
I will be happy to work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to
support legislation like the eight suspension bills we considered
earlier this week to combat fraud, but this bill misses the mark.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose the bill, and I yield
back the balance of my time.
Mr. COMER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to
close.
Madam Speaker, these bills we have debated today, H.R. 8312 and H.R.
8464, should be considered in the broader context of the committee's
legislative work on fraud prevention and financial integrity reforms.
This week, the House has advanced eight bipartisan fraud and program
integrity reform bills that we originally passed out of the Oversight
Committee that will safeguard taxpayer dollars from fraudsters and
cheats.
Collectively, with the bills advanced in the House this week, the
Oversight Committee is preventing fraudulent payments from going out
the door, equipping the Federal workforce to fight fraud, protecting
taxpayer dollars during national emergencies, reforming agency
financial leadership roles to improve agency financial performance, and
launching sweeping oversight work at the Government Accountability
Office over State administration of federally funded programs.
These governmentwide fraud prevention reforms are long overdue. They
will safeguard our constituents' tax dollars and ensure Federal
programs deliver for citizens who need them the most, as Congress
intended.
We must continue to advance bold reforms that meaningfully address
fraud, and I am proud to say these bills brought before the House this
week by the Oversight Committee take a meaningful step toward better
stewardship of taxpayer dollars by protecting them from fraud.
Madam Speaker, I urge each of my House colleagues to join us in
supporting H.R. 8464 as we work to protect the hard-earned tax dollars
of the American people.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
{time} 1300
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 1345, the previous question is ordered
on the bill, as amended.
The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the bill.
The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and was
read the third time.
motion to recommit
Mr. McGARVEY. Madam Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion to
recommit.
The Clerk read as follows:
Mr. McGarvey of Kentucky moves to recommit the bill H.R.
8464 to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The material previously referred to by Mr. McGarvey is as follows:
Mr. McGarvey moves to recommit the bill H.R. 8464 to the
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform with
instructions to report the same back to the House forthwith,
with the following amendment:
Strike section 2(g) and insert the following:
(g) Effective Date.--This Act, and the amendments made by
this Act, shall not take effect until a list of each person
who has donated to the White House Ballroom is made publicly
available, including the following information with respect
to each such person:
(1) The amount donated by the person to the White House
Ballroom.
(2) Any Federal contract the person has entered into.
(3) Any grant awarded to the person.
(4) Any regulatory matter involving the person.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 2(b) of rule XIX, the
previous question is ordered on the motion to recommit.
The question is on the motion to recommit.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. COMER. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this question are postponed.
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