[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 11705]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           WASTEFUL SPENDING

  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, the last 6 months of this Senate I have 
been coming down here every week to talk about the ``Waste of the 
Week''--examples of waste, fraud, and abuse within the Federal 
Government. I can't believe this is No. 17. We are continuing to rack 
up significant savings to the taxpayer. We can eliminate these 
documented and certified wastes that have been determined through the 
various government agencies, inspectors general, and others.
  Today we turn to a rather serious topic regarding the receipt of 
taxpayer dollars by criminals who are avoiding felony arrest but are 
still receiving benefits at taxpayers' expense.
  Here is a little history. The Social Security Act currently prohibits 
those fleeing justice from receiving Social Security and other Federal 
benefits. Congress first addressed this issue in 1996, when it banned 
fugitive felons from receiving Social Security benefits. It then 
expanded this prohibition in 2004 to also apply this ban to Social 
Security disability insurance and World War II benefits.
  Unfortunately this law has run into some conflicting opinions by 
court challenges, which have weakened the effects of the law and led to 
a lack of clarity in terms of what the original language and original 
intent by Congress was supposed to be. To address this problem--because 
it is a problem, and there is lack of clarity--I have this week 
introduced legislation to amend the Social Security Act to clearly 
state--to clarify--the intent of the law that prohibits fugitive felons 
from receiving Social Security retirement and disability benefits. My 
bill would clarify this law and return the implementation of the policy 
to its original intent.
  Now, let me be clear. The government should not be providing benefits 
to those avoiding prosecution, custody or confinement for a crime or 
attempt to commit a crime that is considered a felony. But we are not 
talking about individuals who get speeding tickets or make a mistake on 
their taxes. This legislation applies only to those with an arrest 
order for felony charges.
  The crime must be of enough serious magnitude to carry with it a 
minimum sentence of 1 or more years in prison.
  So we want to be careful here that we are not imposing this 
restriction of receipt of benefits on someone who doesn't qualify under 
the law, and that is another clarification that we want to make.
  Furthermore, the bill retains the ability of the Social Security 
Administration to continue or restore benefits if the individual can 
show good cause--such as that they were exonerated of the crime or 
perhaps were victim of an identity theft or other legitimate reasons to 
not lose benefits.
  According to the Congressional Budget Office, this commonsense fix 
could save taxpayers $4.8 billion over the next 10 years alone.
  So the bottom line is this: We pull out our chart with our ever-
growing gauge of money that has been wasted through fraud and abuse 
within the Federal Government. We are climbing very quickly to $100 
billion. I thought it would take a year to get there if I did one a 
week. We are going to have to make a major extension to this chart or 
redo this because we are closing in on $100 billion of wasted taxpayer 
money documented by Federal Government agencies in investigations. So 
passage of this bill would add $4.8 billion to our chart.
  We have come across so many instances of bloat, waste, fraud, and 
abuse. I could be down here every day the Senate is in session. I could 
be down here every hour the Senate is in session--such is the 
staggering amount of dysfunction occurring through this bloated 
bureaucracy called the Federal Government.
  Here we are, trying to protect taxpayers of our States who are 
stretched to the gills in terms of what they have to pay not only in 
Federal but State or sales--you name it--or real estate taxes that roll 
up and consume so much of everybody's weekly pay.
  The least we can do--while we need to make major fixes to our fiscal 
problems here--is take those that have been identified by legitimate 
neutral organizations--inspectors general of the United States, various 
agencies--bring those to light, and then do something about it and not 
just come down here and make a chart and add some red ink, but actually 
introduce legislation, which I am trying to do on some of these pieces 
so that we can remedy this problem.
  So meanwhile we have an administration here that has refused over and 
over to sit down and work out a long-term fiscal debt reduction 
program, which this country desperately needs because the debt clock is 
still ticking away like crazy.
  If you want to see it, go to my Web site at coats.senate.gov. We have 
the clock right there. We haven't talked about it much down here 
lately. We made a big push earlier. Too many people have thrown up 
their hands and said that under this administration it is not going to 
happen. That probably is right. But the least we can do then, until we 
get new management in the White House, is to find these issues of 
waste, fraud, and abuse, and do something about it now. So that is what 
we are trying to do.
  I look forward to being back here next week with the latest edition 
of ``Waste of the Week.''
  I thank my colleague from Maine for her patience.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). The Senator from Rhode Island.

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