[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 16]
[House]
[Pages 21811-21812]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       WASHINGTON WASTE WATCHERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mario Diaz-Balart) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am here as a member 
of the Washington waste watchers group, and I am here to focus on 
irresponsible spending on funds that miss the beneficiary and then go 
elsewhere.
  Today's Washington waste watch, Mr. Speaker, highlights the taxpayer 
dollars that are sent to people other than those who they are intended 
to go for, and those are dollars that are supposed to go for certain 
beneficiaries of certain programs.
  Americans should and would be shocked to know that their tax dollars 
are being sent to Washington, that they are funding benefits for dead 
people or prisoners and millions of people that simply lie on their 
applications in order to receive benefits that they do not qualify for.
  The Washington bureaucracy, for example, is throwing away benefits 
that taxpayers spend their hard-earned money to fund and money that 
they send to D.C. Mr. Speaker, for example, 23 percent of all students 
whose loans were discharged due to disability claims are actually 
holding jobs, and many borrowers who receive death discharges are found 
to be clearly alive, Mr. Speaker, and in many cases, earning wages, 23 
percent.
  Medicaid, for example, paid $1.6 million to a Wisconsin 
transportation company for multiple round trips to, among others, dead 
people that they clearly were not transporting.
  Mr. Speaker, there are some good things going on, though. The 
Veterans Affairs Inspector General is using computer technology to 
identify individuals who may be defrauding the VA by

[[Page 21812]]

receiving benefits that, again, for people they are receiving benefits 
for people that have already died. More than 5,500 possible cases have 
been identified and they have actually recovered $4.7 million, but over 
the past 5 years, for example, law enforcement has arrested almost 
7,000 fugitives who were illegally receiving food stamps. They included 
1,500 accused drug offenders, Mr. Speaker, 31 murderers, 45 sex 
offenders and child molesters, hundreds wanted for assault and robbery.
  Mr. Speaker, more than 25 percent of free and reduced price school 
lunches are being consumed by children whose families' income is way 
above what they should be to qualify for those programs, and then yet 
we do not have enough money, some people will say, for those that do 
qualify.

                              {time}  2340

  The Veterans Affairs Inspector General estimated that roughly 13,700 
incarcerated veterans have been paid about $100 million nationwide 
because the Department just does not have a way to figure out who are 
the prisoners or not. These funds, Mr. Speaker, could have paid for 
45,000 monthly compensation benefits for disabled veterans who do 
deserve it and who do need those benefits.
  Last year, Mr. Speaker, $366 million in Pell grant awards were 
improperly given out because applicants basically understated their 
income. These funds wasted on people that do not qualify could have 
paid for over 84,000 Pell grants for people that do deserve those 
benefits.
  Mr. Speaker, President Bush is committed to eliminating these 
improper payments that plague these very important government programs. 
In fact, the President's management agenda has identified improper 
payments as one of the main elements within the administration's 
initiative to improve financial management.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, the American people should not be fooled, and 
they are not fooled, when millions of dollars are being spent on 
benefits for dead people, millions of dollars going to people in 
prisons that clearly do not qualify, millions going to people that lie 
on their applications. And despite all this, Mr. Speaker, the Democrats 
still want to raise the hard-working American taxpayers' taxes.

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