OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Community Services Block Grant Modernization Act of 2022

Floor Speech

Date: May 13, 2022
Location: Washington, DC

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Mrs. HAYES. Madam Speaker, I rise to offer an amendment to protect communities from malicious scams surrounding the community services block grant program.

The CSBG program is absolutely critical to the empowerment of vulnerable communities. Funding from the CSBG program has helped nine community action agencies in my State serve 107,000 families and 260,000 individuals.

It has helped over 81,000 households avoid crisis with energy assistance and nearly 17,000 people avoid hunger with emergency or supplemental food and enrolled 5,600 children in early childcare services.

Additionally, these agencies have helped nearly 11,000 people file their income taxes, returning $8.5 million to my State's economy.

CSBG programs empower our communities' most vulnerable, which is why they are always offered free of charge.

However, scammers across the country falsely purport to offer CSBG services for a fee, preying on those in our community when they are most in need of help. We have seen a proliferation of fraud and scams throughout the COVID-19 pandemic when emergency Federal dollars were sent to States.

These scams are illegal and morally reprehensible. It is our responsibility to ensure our communities are properly informed to combat predatory schemes. It is our responsibility to reinforce guardrails to protect the integrity of these programs and ensure they fulfill their promises to our communities.

My amendment would require that States provide easily accessible warnings about verified scams as well as information on where to seek recourse should someone believe they are the victim of a CSBG-related scam.

Making this information available will ensure that CSBG can continue to provide lifesaving services to communities without being subject to greed and mal-intent. This is a simple, commonsense amendment that the Congressional Budget Office has certified as budget neutral.

I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this amendment and the underlying legislation.

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