Shifting Gears: Moving from Recovery to Prevention of Improper Payments and Fraud
House Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Federal Workforce
2025-03-11
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Source: Congress.gov
Participants
Transcript
Good morning. The Subcommittee on Government Operations will come to order, and I want to welcome everyone to this, what I think is going to be an important bipartisan hearing today. Without objection, the Chair may declare recess at any time, and I recognize myself for making an opening statement to our witnesses that are here today and to the people who have taken time to come here. to see today, as well as my colleagues, I want to really dispense with my opening statement and without objection, I'll enter that into the record. But what I'd like to say is that this is a follow-up to the meetings which we have held for the last few years, where there was active discussion not just about what we were going to do to recognize what might be considered waste, fraud, or abuse, or money that was spent by the federal government that did not equal that which it was intended to do, which kept money away from the real recipients and for people who would have benefited with congressional intent. As you will recall, last year we held what was a meeting in October whereby we had GAO and others who came to speak with us. and they came up with what might be a three-year number of their ideas about inappropriate payments, then waste, fraud, and abuse, but things that were paid that we felt like were not permissible or following the intent of the law or the needs of the money. Mr. Mfume and I at that time looked at each other and said, we are going to work together We are going to challenge GAO to come back to us.
We are going to find within the government other particular people who have talent, data, information, and can lead us to a better solution. I am pleased to say, Mr. Mfume, I believe this is the beginning of that turning the corner to where we will then not just work together, but try and discover the things that reside within the government to gain the information that is necessary. And I think today's hearing will prove that in. So I'm delighted that you are here. I'm going to put my opening statement in the record, but that is what I wanted to say. This is about identifying, preventing fraud, improper payments in federal programs, and we're going to learn today how we're better prepared if we work together, if we find a way, and I think we will, not just to work together, but to use the important elements of this government for data information and lessons learned. And I would say thank you for being here. Distinguished gentlemen, wish to have time for an opening statement. I do. Gentlemen, it's recognized. I do, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. Good morning to you. Good morning to our witnesses who are here. And I want to just personally thank Chairman Sessions for the manner in which we continue to meet each other halfway, even though we're on different sides of the aisle, to come together to find a way at least to release the federal government of some of its ailments, particularly this whole notion of improper payments, waste, fraud, and abuse. We did that throughout the 118th Congress, and my colleagues and I on this subcommittee all remain laser-focused on combating those matters. And I think we also have always agreed that this is a nonpartisan matter, no matter where we are in our country or philosophically.
We agree that every dollar directed to every program ought to go to the intended purpose. From the very beginning of the President's term, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, and some of you know that I have referred to it as the Department of Government evil for my own particular purposes because of the way it's affected working men and working women and their families across this country. I think hardworking, dedicated men and women exist in every congressional district throughout the country. And while there is still no full, complete public accounting on all of them who have been dismissed other than numbers, we don't know the names and the faces and the families and the children and the mortgages and everything else that has been disrupted by this. I have got no doubt that among the hundreds of thousands of federal employees affected by the fork in the road email and the mass firings of probationary staff that many, many are experiencing a pain that we do not feel right now. And that's not to even mention, as I'm sure the chairman would mention also, the 18 inspector generals that have been dismissed. They were like the sheriffs.
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