Preventing Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in Tanf Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 8872, the Preventing Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in TANF Act.

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program provides $16 billion of taxpayer money each year to help low-income families get back on their feet. That is an important mission, but when taxpayer dollars are lost to fraud, improper payments, or poor oversight, that money is not helping a family in need.

For too long, TANF has lacked basic accountability measures that apply to many other Federal programs. In fact, TANF is one of the few Federal programs not required to report an annual improper payment rate. Madam Speaker, you can imagine that is an encouragement of fraud. It should concern every Member of this body.

This bill brings needed accountability to TANF by requiring improper payments be measured and reported. You can see how many improper payments we found in other programs.

With the national debt now exceeding $39 trillion, Congress has a responsibility to make sure every Federal dollar is spent effectively.

Reducing waste and fraud is not about weakening assistance to families in need. It is about protecting those programs so they reach the parents and children who truly depend upon them.

If my colleagues on the other side of the aisle really want to help struggling families, they should join us in making sure that TANF dollars are not lost to waste and fraud but instead go to the people the program was created to serve.

It is not surprising when you have a program funded by the Federal Government and administered by the State government there is fraud.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I encourage my Democratic colleagues especially to support this legislation.

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