[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18420-18421]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about 
our efforts towards reducing waste, fraud and abuse in the Federal 
Government. It is a problem that has been plaguing the American 
taxpayers for far too long. With so little accountability on the 
Federal level, our government has grown like an unchecked cancer, 
basically ransacking and pick-pocketing the taxpayers pocket, wasting 
taxpayer dollars so the Federal Government does not have the dollars it 
needs to get the job done.
  How does this happen? It happens by disregarding erroneous tax 
returns; by Medicare making thousands of overpayments, refusing to 
improve their bookkeeping system; in effect having the government 
waste, fraud and abuse occurring so that we do not have the taxpayer 
dollars necessary in those areas we want to have it.
  Before I begin, allow me to address some specific areas that are of 
interest to me so we can begin the process to start to reform the 
Federal Government to address the issue of the deficit and hopefully 
bring our budget back in line to balance.
  Go back, if you will, and imagine if the Federal Government was 
actually able to account for that $17.3 billion back in 2001 or that 
$20 billion in overpayments that they made in that same year. If we 
were able to do that, we would be able to bring our Federal deficit 
that year within eight points better than we did that year. Eight 
points, eight percent, it is not that much, but at least it is a step 
in the right direction.
  Today we have already heard of the creation of a new organization of 
dedicated freshmen members of Washington's Waste Watchers. This is a 
group that is dedicated to literally cut the fat to address the issue 
of waste, fraud and abuse, to try to reverse the years of neglect on 
the Federal level when it comes to Federal spending.
  When I go back to the folks back in the 5th Congressional District in 
New Jersey where I represent, I hear countless times from those people 
of how hard it is to send in their tax dollars from their hard-earned 
paychecks that they make each week, to send it down to Washington only 
to hear all the stories in the press of how we spend the money down 
here. When they hear that money is being misspent, wasted, their 
response is shock and disappointment.
  Mr. Speaker, Americans did not send us to Washington just to spend 
their money. They sent us here to spend their money in the right way, 
not to waste their money, not to abuse their money, not to lose their 
money, but to spend it to help those needed recipients, as we intended 
to.
  It is time that we in Congress start putting some pressure on those 
Federal agencies to get their books in order, to crack down on fraud 
and abuse, to cut the waste.
  I sit on the Committee on the Budget, and we had the Inspector 
General folks from the Department of Education come in, and they spoke 
of improper loan forgiveness for false death and disability claims and 
questionable handling of student loan funds. What this means is that 
there is less dollars to go into the classroom for the textbooks and 
overcrowded classrooms because we sent the Federal dollars we want to 
there.

[[Page 18421]]

  But this is just one example. There are so many more that we are 
going to hear as we go on in this program.
  Examples on the Medicare program, which pays as much as eight times 
the cost of other Federal agencies for drugs and programs, Medicare 
that when you compare it to programs like the VA, the VA spends $130 
for a wheelchair, Medicare $571. Medicare versus the VA, VA spends 700 
bucks for a bed. Medicare spends around 1,700 bucks, a 230 percent 
increase for the same program. Medicare from 1996 to 2002 spent $83 
billion in improper payments.
  We also had some testimony from some other people, people from the 
Inspector General's office in the Department of Health and Human 
Services. They told us that upwards to 5 percent or more of all funding 
that goes into Medicare is misused and wasted. This House just voted on 
a $400 billion package for prescription drugs. Five percent of $400 
billion comes to a potential $20 billion of more waste, fraud and 
abuse.
  How do we avoid this problem in that area? There is a couple of 
recommendations. One is to have accounting mechanisms in place for all 
the money that is spent. It is not there. Secondly is to have 
verification mechanisms for the employees and have those employees be 
held responsible and accountable and, thirdly, have more resources for 
the Inspector Generals to conduct the audits to find that waste, fraud 
and abuse that we are talking about here. That is just another example 
that our constituents back home hear about of waste, fraud and abuse on 
the Federal level.
  Mr. Speaker, I remind my colleagues that the American people did not 
send us to Washington, the American people did not elect us to be 
Members of Congress to spend their money ineffectively. They sent us 
here to make sure that the money is spent efficiently and effectively. 
They sent us here to make sure that there is not that waste, fraud and 
abuse.

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