[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9559-9560]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           WASTEFUL SPENDING

  Mr. COATS. Madam President, this is week 14 of ``Waste of the Week.'' 
I have been coming to the floor for 14 weeks while the Senate has been 
in session this year to talk about yet another waste which, if we can 
correct, can save the taxpayers a lot of money. In this case, we are 
talking about several billion dollars that have been determined by the 
inspector general of the Social Security Administration to have been 
spent improperly, accidently--by whatever reason--money that belongs to 
the taxpayers and falls under the category of waste.
  It is waste, and I give this inspector general and his staff great 
credit for doing something very creative and interesting. Actually, 
this is their job, delving into how an agency handles its business and, 
more importantly, how it handles the taxpayers' money. Whether you are 
looking at big business or big government, you find examples of cost 
cutting that can save the company and, in this case, save the taxpayer, 
a very significant amount of money.
  The inspector general decided to take a random sample of over 1,500 
beneficiaries of the Social Security disability fund, and 44.5 percent 
of them received an overpayment at some point during the 10-year period 
that he studied. And based on this sample, the Social Security 
inspector general estimated that overpayments totaled about $16.8 
billion over a period of time from October 2003 to February 2014, 
covering nearly 4 million beneficiaries. Now, that is a lot of people, 
but in this digital age, there are ways in which we can ensure that 
correct payments are made to the right people and that we don't end up 
overspending money that comes from hard-earned taxpayer dollars.
  Now, there is some good news to this story because the Social 
Security Administration, following up on this study, determined to go 
through its records and try to recover some of this money that had been 
overpaid. They were successful in recovering nearly half of the $16.8 
billion. They recovered $8.1 billion of overpayments during this period 
of time, and I commend them for their effort in doing that. But while 
we celebrate the good news, we also need to dig in and determine how we 
make sure this doesn't continue.
  There is another $8.7 billion out there that needs to be recovered 
and, of course, the goal is to not only recover that money, if 
possible, but also to keep this from continuing in out-years. So let us 
put the steps in place that will give us the ability to stop this from 
happening going forward.
  Now, let me go back and give a little background, the history of how 
this all came about and how this happened. Of those who improperly 
received benefits, the circumstances break down like this: Nearly 40 
percent--actually 37.9 percent--of the overpayments happened when 
individuals started working and made enough money by law to support 
themselves and, therefore, no longer qualified for Social Security 
disability benefits. Another 23 percent had their medical condition 
improved to the point where they could go back to work.
  Now, interestingly enough, I believe it was my very first ``Waste of 
the Week'' that I pointed out that a very significant number of 
individuals were receiving payments both from Social Security 
disability and unemployment insurance. To receive unemployment 
insurance, you have to prove you cannot work or you have been thrown 
out of work and can't get back. To receive Social Security disability 
payments, you have to prove you no longer are able to work and get 
back. Yet these people were receiving payments from both of those 
sources.
  That was the very first ``Waste of the week,'' and we put up a chart 
indicating that we are hoping to reach our goal of $100 billion of 
waste, fraud, and abuse, to show the example of money being sent to 
Washington. Some say: We can't cut a penny from any program. Well, 
every business that has gone through this great recession--now going on 
for the sixth year or so--has had to make sacrifices and they have had 
to cut costs. Families have had to cut costs. Businesses have had to 
cut costs. Only the Federal Government says we can't cut a penny; every 
program we have is valuable and has to be saved and, in fact, needs 
more money to be efficient.
  So let's start with those issues that have been determined, through 
inspections by independent agencies, and proven to have fraud and waste 
and see if we can add this up. As you can see, this gauge is growing 
every week.
  Returning to the breakdown of those who improperly received benefits: 
Another 8.6 percent had multiple reasons they were no longer eligible 
for the benefit, 7.5 percent were imprisoned and had fugitive status, 
which means they were no longer qualified for the disability benefits, 
but 7.2 percent of those people continued to receive checks after they 
had died. So you not only have people in prison and therefore no longer 
eligible, but 7.2 percent of the people receiving benefits received 
those after they died, and that totaled up to a very significant amount 
of money.
  Again, we certainly have the technology and the capability to run the 
death records through the system to make sure checks are not continuing 
to be sent out to the last home address or whatever to deceased 
individuals and then taken in and cashed perhaps by family or who knows 
who.
  There were 3.4 percent who weren't entitled to benefits in the first 
place. It should be pretty easy to scratch those names and save some 
money. There were 1.8 percent who had their payment improperly 
computed--in other words, overpayment, a mistake made by the Social 
Security Administration--1.8 percent had financial resources exceeding 
the limit which they were supposed to get, 1.7 percent had a change in 
their living arrangements--they moved abroad and no longer were 
eligible--and 5 percent fell under another category of reasons.
  The bottom line is an inspection was made, a study was conducted to 
see how this came about, and we now have the information that money was 
returned through legal process, but there is still $8.7 billion out 
there we didn't get back. So we want to make sure measures are now put 
in place so this doesn't continue. We certainly don't want some Senator 
on the floor 5 years or 10 years from now saying: Let me tell you about 
the latest study of the Social Security inspector general, and when the 
former Senator from Indiana came to the floor he announced there was 
$8.7 billion still out there and that we ought to make changes in the 
system so it wouldn't happen again. But guess what. It didn't get done, 
and now here I am back at it.
  So let's do this now. Let's make these changes now so the American 
people understand we are here not to extort them from the kind of 
overpayment that is taking place and using their taxpayer dollars to 
achieve that goal. We can fix this problem, but it is going to take 
some work.
  We need better cross-referencing for beneficiaries with other 
government lists or private lists to help identify earned wages or 
other assets. We need information sharing that can save billions and 
make a significant financial debt into these unfortunate overpayments.
  Assuming the trend of the IG report continues, this change can be 
made, and the missing $8.7 billion in overpayments can be recovered by 
the Social Security Administration in future payments. We haven't 
calculated what potentially we could save in out-years because, 
hopefully, we will be able to put

[[Page 9560]]

measures in place, now that we have this information, that will stop 
these overpayments from being made. But we do know there is $8.7 
billion out there of money that can be recovered.
  So we are adding today a big chunk of money, bringing us up nearly to 
three-quarters of our goal of reaching $100 billion in savings from 
waste, fraud, and abuse. We are only into week 14, and we have several 
more weeks and months ahead of us. I am hoping we are going to have to 
put an extension onto this chart. We will see how high it goes. Because 
our goal is to save the taxpayer dollars that the Federal Government 
has been proven to waste through waste, fraud, and abuse.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. ERNST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coats). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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