[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 11318-11319]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   UNCOVERING WASTE, FRAUD, AND ABUSE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to discuss what my colleagues have 
been discussing here today: issues of waste, fraud, and abuse. But, 
before I do, I would like to make one statement. I operated as a trial 
judge in Texas for about 21 years, and we had rules in the court at 
that time that if the opposing counsel for any purpose attacked or 
impugned the honesty or integrity of another member or got vicious and 
attacked them in any form or fashion, we could correct them; and if 
they continued in that type of style, we could actually fine them. It 
has been my limited experience here in Congress that if we were able to 
allow the Chair to issue such fines, we could probably balance the 
budget here in Congress without much problem at all. And I think we 
have seen a lot of that here today with the use of some terms like 
``liar'' that I have heard here used today. I just as an aside wanted 
to say that.
  Back about a year-and-a-half ago, I was in a meeting in Houston, 
Texas. As I said, I have been a trial judge. Before the meeting, I had 
an undercover Department of Public Safety officer come to me at this 
meeting and say he would like to talk to me in private for just a 
minute; and I went in and talked to him.
  He said, Judge, I want to tell you about something. There is 
something going on here in Houston that I think you ought to know about 
it. There is a gang of Middle Eastern folks that are stealing baby 
formula from our local supermarkets and selling it to the WIC program.
  Well, my first reaction would be the reaction I would think of most 
Americans, and that was, gee, whiz. I mean, do you guys not have 
anything better to do than go out and investigate shoplifting? But 
knowing that he was part of an undercover task force, I figured he had 
something to say, and I said, well, how big a deal could that be, 
Lieutenant?
  He said, well, Judge, here in Houston it is about $1 million a month.
  And I said, good Lord, $1 million a month for baby formula?
  He said, yes, sir; and, you know, it is not against the law to 
possess baby formula. It is against the law to possess narcotics and 
dangerous drugs, but it is not against the law to possess baby formula. 
So if we catch a guy with a trunk load of baby formula, we cannot do 
anything to him. But we know what he is doing. He is stealing this 
formula, and he is selling it to the WIC program to the tune of about 
$1 million a month. In fact, the estimates are that in Texas alone it 
is $1.5 million a month Statewide.
  He said, we have followed this group to Phoenix, Arizona. We have 
followed them to New Mexico, although I do not remember which town in 
New Mexico; to California, San Diego and Los Angeles. They have an 
operation in each one of those towns, to the possible tune of $30 
million a month Nationwide. I was shocked.
  And he said, we also have evidence that this is being used to fund 
terrorism.
  Now when you want to talk about waste, fraud, and abuse, how much 
more fraudulent could it be than stealing from the mouths of our 
children and the poorest of our Nation, taking away a program that was 
designed to help poor mothers feed their babies, stealing from them, 
and letting a government agency be a fence for that purpose?
  I asked him, I said, have you talked to the people in the WIC 
program? He said, yes, I have explained to them that they should not be 
buying this stuff off the street, that buying it off the street was 
fencing for criminal activity.

                              {time}  2000

  And he said, ``Well, they do not see the seriousness in it.''

[[Page 11319]]

  Mr. Speaker, those of us who have been in criminal justice in this 
country have sent people to the penitentiary for a whole lot less than 
stealing a million dollars a month. I, for one, have done that on 
several different occasions.
  It shocked me so that I am proud to let my colleagues know that in 
H.R. 3873 I got an amendment which now requires that the WIC program 
have certified vendors that they buy this product from. But when our 
government has risen to the size that it has risen, that it misses that 
kind of waste, fraud, and abuse; we have got a serious problem. And yet 
the other side of the aisle, the Democrats, want to raise our taxes to 
grow a bigger government, a bigger government that in many instances 
the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.
  For that reason, I honor the members of Waste Watchers for the hard 
work they are doing trying to be watch dogs.

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